Harry Potter and the Halfblood Weasleys
by HarryBond007
Summary: Time Travel. Couple of visitors from the future with a certain mission. Will update slow for now... that doesn't mean that this has gone to hiatus. [ON HOLD]
1. The Search for a Familiar Place

**1\. DISCLAIMER. The obvious. I do not own anything. Thanks to Ms Rowling for giving us such wonderful stories. Nothing of what I write is part of HP canon. This story is mostly focused on canon characters but even if a character created by me pops up it would still be set on HP's world, I do not pretend to do anything with those characters besides having some fun writing this.  
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**2\. Thanks a lot to Jayelyyn and Inkzy for the help with this story.**

**3\. Any error here is mine and not from my reviewers. If you spot anything or have a doubt about grammar used or plot just PM me, I'm always swift to answer.**

**4\. Enjoy.**

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"Mum is going to be so mad when she finds out," a boy said, rushing through an open field. He was following a slightly older girl, but it was so early that the dim light made it very difficult to fully distinguish anything else.

"She is not going to find out because no one is going to tell her," the girl replied without slowing down. She seemed to be very busy, looking for something in that field, but the lack of sunlight was making things very hard and the boy's complaints were not helping.

"She will, she always does." the boy insisted.

"This time she won't."

The redhead boy trailed off for a moment, but it didn't take long before he spoke again. "How do you know that?"

"I-I... I just know, ok?"

"Well, I think that she will find out." the boy said.

"Hugo, please, it's not the time."

"We should explain everything to her before she finds out; it will be better. Besides, if it works, she might not even be mad at all."

"Hugo..." the girl said, clearly annoyed now.

"What? Do you think that she'll be mad either way? I think that-"

"Hugo!" the girl finally stopped, quickly turning to face her brother with a disgruntled expression. "She won't, ok? Now can you please stop whining and hurry up? I don't want the wrong people spotting us here."

The only answer she got was a slow and discouraged nod but that was more than enough for her because in the current situation, they just couldn't afford to waste any more time. Her eyes moved, trying to see if they had been noticed by someone, and when she was sure that no one else was around, she switched her attention back to the front.

They continued walking through the dark countryside without much luck for some time. Whatever they were looking for didn't seem like something easy to find, so the desperation soon became visible on the girl's face. The night had been long so she was tired and hungry. The thought only made things worse because she had been blaming herself for not bringing any food with them. It really seemed like a stupid idea not packing at least a nosh when they didn't know how long the trip was going to take.

The redhead girl sighed, taking all those thoughts out of her head. Wondering about what could have happened didn't matter because the most important thing at the moment was to focus on her task. So she tried something different; she extended her arms ahead and started moving them hastily, walking around as if she was trying to seize something out of the thin air. "I know it is around here, I just know it." she mumbled to herself. "I recognize those hills... things look different, but even so... Hummm," she snorted.

She kept moving her head in all directions, wandering from one place to the other until she noticed that the silence had covered her entirely. Her eyes expanded at once and she turned around quickly, very afraid of not finding her brother anymore. Fortunately for her, the boy was still there, staring heavily at his feet with a very sad look on his face. That image surprised the bushy haired girl who, after a moment, sighed and approached the boy, trying to look less severe.

"Hugo, we have to do this, ok? We are already here; there is no going back." she said, putting a hand over his shoulder. "Sorry for yelling at you, I'm just nervous. We really need to find the place."

"I know."

The girl was expecting a more elaborate answer, so she let a long time pass before continuing, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it's just that... no, forget it..."

"Hugo, what's the matter?"

"I... well I just- I want this to work," he said, stopping for a couple of seconds to breathe. "I really want it to work. I miss him... I miss them," he finished in a dreary tone.

Those simple words took the girl by surprise and then all the sorrow came back, crushing her spirits. The girl couldn't remember them without the tragedy now. Every time she thought about her mother, her godfather, or the rest of her family, she saw them sobbing their lives away. She couldn't go through that all over again.

She fixed her blue eyes on her brother, trying to answer in a soft voice. "I miss them too, that's why we are here, remember? We will bring him back."

After a moment, Hugo tightened his mouth, raising his eyes slowly to get a better look at her. "Rose?"

"Yes?"

"What we're doing... it is wrong, right?" Hugo asked, his voice sounding edgy.

Rose was caught off guard by her brother's statement, but she couldn't find a way to disagree. The truth was she had been thinking the exact same thing ever since they took that time-turner, and it was clear that what they had done was not only wrong but it was illegal too. The night before they had broken into their mother's office with only the thought of bringing their father back, they didn't consider the consequences. All they were thinking at that moment, was that the small golden hourglass on their mother's desk could fix everything and it took them less than a minute to make up their minds. Now, if everything worked as expected, they were in the past with no-one knowing they existed, but hopefully that also meant they were at a time when their father was still alive.

Rose nodded. "It is wrong, Hugo. I knew it the second we took that thing. However, we are already here and this only works one way." she answered, pulling a golden chain from beneath her shirt. "We have to continue."

Hugo seemed to think about it for a moment, then he spoke again, "Do you really think we can bring him back?"

"Of course! Otherwise, all of this would have been for nothing. It has to work," she said, giving the boy a wide smile.

Hugo nodded, trying to look more hopeful.

"Now, do you want to help me? We're close, I can feel it."

The boy's face went bright and he nodded with enthusiasm. "Sure. What do you need me to do?"

Both of them spent the next hour moving their arms all around the field, but they couldn't find what they were looking for. A few times, they changed the direction and threw rocks, waiting for something to answer but whatever they were waiting for, didn't come. Soon they found themselves exhausted and decided to rest for a while on a log that was nearby. That was where the light of the morning sun caught them.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Hugo asked after a long pause.

"Positive, just look... don't you recognize it?"

The boy moved his head around, narrowing his eyes as if that could help him get a clue of what he was supposed to notice. "I think so..." he said.

Rose was worried about him. The boy had not been the same ever since their father's death. Even when she had been having a pretty awful time herself, she knew that she had to be strong for him. That was what they would've wanted her to do.

"Rose? Why didn't we apparate or something?"

Rose noticed that Hugo was looking peaky, but there was not much that she could do about it. They hadn't brought any food or muggle money with them, so their options were quite scarce. The girl wailed softly at their situation, thinking that if she had acted less impulsively, maybe they wouldn't be struggling like this. However, Rose also knew that if she hadn't acted like that, they probably wouldn't be where they were in the first place; she was always more judicious on second thoughts.

"Neither of us know how to apparate, Hugo. I'm sorry." said Rose, looking ashamed of not having answers for him.

Hugo looked confused. "Sorry? Sorry for what?"

"Because I dragged you here without a plan? Or maybe because I was so dumb that forgot to pack something to eat?"

"Oi! Hold your hippogriffs! What do you mean? I was there too, and I didn't bring anything either." Hugo started. "Besides, you didn't drag me, I came all by myself."

"But if I only-"

"No! This is not your fault, Rose. Now knock it off and let's keep moving. We have to find that - those - whatever." said the boy, standing up from the old log.

Rose smiled at her little brother and stood up, also with renewed energy. Hugo had always been very simple with things and she was grateful for that.

Their task continued for another half hour until something unexpected happened. Rose was walking through the field, distracted on something she thought she had seen, when suddenly something hit her hard from the front. The redhead girl shrieked, and immediately after, she was propelled to the ground with great strength.

"Ouch!" she whined, rubbing her rear where she had landed.

"Rose!" yelled Hugo, running towards his sister. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it's just... my arse."

Hugo laughed briefly. "What? What happened?"

He tried to be serious, but failed to remove the wide smile from his face when he noticed that his sister was ok.

Seeing Hugo smile was surely something positive, but in her current position, she didn't find it amusing. "Oh stop it!"

"Sorry, it's just that - what happened?" he asked again, turning to look in the direction where her sister had been standing just moments before.

Rose snorted at him and moved her blue eyes to the front. "I don't know... I hit... something."

Her explanation had been very vague, but even so, it seemed illogical as there was nothing in front of her but air. "... What the...?"

"Rose, there's nothing there. Didn't you just trip over?"

"Of course not! Something hit me!" replied Rose, very offended.

"All right, all right, let me see." Hugo said, standing up and walking to where her sister had been supposedly thrown back.

"Hugo, be careful," added Rose, still from her place in the ground.

"It's ok, I guess." said the boy as he started touching the weird space lightly. Hugo's eyes opened in surprise. He waved his fingers over the suspicioned area, gasping as a few waves moved around as if the air was not air, but a long portion of transparent, vertically flowing water.

"Oh!" Rose said, her eyes widening. "We found it!"

"What!? Really?! This... thing?" asked Hugo, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes! Those are the wards."

"Are you sure?" asked the redhead boy, still reluctant.

"Of course I'm sure! I know about these things."

Hugo gave up the argument. "If you say so - but how do we get in?"

"I don't know," said Rose honestly.

"You don't know?!" asked Hugo incredulously. "So are we just going to stay here until someone sees us?"

"Maybe we can walk around it until we find an entry point or something like that," suggested Rose, standing up and shaking the dirt off of her blue jeans.

"Rubbish! I have a better idea," said Hugo, grabbing a rock from the ground.

"No, Hugo wait!"

But it was too late. The rock flew away from Hugo's hand and went straight to the invisible wall in front of them. Rose ducked instinctively, expecting the rock to come back to them, but nothing happened.

"Huh? Where is it?"

"Oh... On the other side, probably." answered Hugo. "Crap! I thought that it would let us in or at least give us a clue."

"Hugo, these are powerful wards. They are not going to be beaten by a stupid rock!"

"Well, it was worth a try wasn't it?"

Rose snorted, walking towards the barrier, but couldn't find a solution. Instead, she experienced the same waves of air that her brother had. "Guess it only blocks people, not rocks."

"Now what?"

The redhead girl narrowed her eyes, trying to find a way in, but she was out of ideas. She was beginning to get very frustrated about her current situation, her birthday was a few days away and she was going to be of age. Until then, she couldn't use her wand outside of Hogwarts - or, at least, that was the situation before she left home, and she didn't want to risk finding out how the trip affected the underage restriction.

They remained there for a couple of minutes, Hugo throwing more rocks at the wall. Rose tried to imagine how many things she could do if she were only able to use her wand, but a voice suddenly brought them out of their thoughts.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the strong voice asked.

They both gasped in surprise because, out of nowhere, a man had appeared, holding a wand and pointing it directly at them. The man was tall and handsome and his hair was totally red. Rose didn't recognize him at first because of how young he looked, but Hugo mumbled something that brought light to the girl quickly. "U-Uncle B-Bill?" he asked doubtfully from behind her, but in a voice so low that Rose was sure the man didn't hear him.

"What was that? I asked you a question." Bill Weasley's voice sounded very severe.

"Two, actually." answered Hugo instinctively.

"Don't try to act funny with me!" he insisted, gripping his wand even more dangerously. "I want answers and I want them now, unless you want things to get ugly."

Rose and her brother were temporarily stunned by the reaction of the man in front of them. They couldn't believe he was the same good man that used to share his awesome stories about Africa with them. The man that they knew was always laughing and trying to turn a blind eye to every prank being orchestrated. This man didn't seem to have a sense of humour at all. Something didn't feel right for Rose who, until that day, had a very different image of the eldest Weasley brother. All of her life, she had thought that beyond the scruffy clothing style and intimidating scars, Bill Weasley was so good-natured he wouldn't be able to kill a fly if he tried to. Now, she wasn't so sure of that.

"I don't have all day!" yelled the young, scarless man. He was now moving his wand impatiently between them, narrowing his uncanny blue eyes like he was trying to decide what to do with them.

Hugo turned to look at his sister with fearful eyes; her only answer was a reassuring nod. Rose knew they never expected to face their uncle when they first decided to travel all this way back, but now they needed to convince him if they didn't want to be victims of his wand.

"I'm Rose," said the girl with determination, "and this is my brother, Hugo."

The redhead man seemed to ease a bit at the first of his questions answered but still there was a long way until Rose could feel they had convinced him. "Last name?"

Rose's eyes moved briefly to her brother, who paled at that question. "It's all right, Hugo," she said, and then moved back to face her uncle. "Weasley."

The surprise was evident on Bill Weasley's face. For a moment, it appeared as though he had loosened the grip on his wand, but he soon regained his severe expression and returned to his previous behaviour. "Rubbish! I know the Weasley family tree perfectly; there is no Rose or Hugo on it! Last name!" he asked again, pointing his wand at Rose.

"She already told you! Is that so hard to notice?!" yelled Hugo, rushing to stand between the man and his sister with a frown on his face.

Bill Weasley was suddenly stunned, looking at the boy. After a moment, his eyes opened wide and he gaped. "R-Ron?... What are you...? What is going...?... What?" the grip from his wand loosened again, but before anyone could say anything else, they were interrupted by another man appearing.

Rose's blue eyes expanded at the sight. It was a much younger Arthur Weasley, who didn't have a single grey hair on his head. "What's happening here?" he demanded, looking at Rose and Hugo.

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

"Your mother was nervous, you were taking too long." the man said, turning to look at the visitors.

"Who are they?"

"They say their names are Rose and Hugo and that they're Weasleys, but they're lying. There are no Roses or Hugos in the family tree. Still, look at the boy; he looks a lot like..."

"Ron," Rose's grandfather sighed with disbelief as his son nodded at him. Then, the man turned to look at Rose and appeared to be surprised again. "And the girl, she looks like Hermione..."

Rose's uncle seemed surprised because he hadn't noticed that before and agreed with his father. "What's going on here? They can't be Polyjuiced... Ron is taller than the boy and Hermione's hair is not red."

"Explain yourselves," demanded Arthur Weasley.

After thinking about it for a moment, Rose decided that the only way they could believe her was if she showed them some proof. She moved her hand to her shirt and then pulled out the golden chain.

Both men gasped, staring at the small hourglass in disbelief. "It can't be... a time turner?!"

"We are from the future," said Hugo.

"That's i-impossible," said Arthur Weasley. "You are not in the family tree and time turners can't travel back that far!"

"They can where we come from... Grandpa," said Rose, staring directly at the man, who almost jumped at they way she addressed him.

"Prove it," demanded Rose's uncle.

Hugo opened his mouth, ready to talk, but Rose rushed to stop him. "We can prove it, but I don't think this is the place to do it."

"You're nuts if you think that we'll let you in just like that."

"Bill, hold on." said Rose's grandfather, stunning his son. "She's right. If they're telling the truth, we cannot leave them here, and we cannot talk freely either. Besides, that device is something."

"I guess, but... are you sure Dad?"

The balding man turned to look at Rose. "We will need to cast a few spells on you for precaution. We'll also take that device of yours, and your wands. I promise we'll return them once everything has been cleared."

"Of course, Grandpa!" Rose answered, smiling and giving her wand without a second thought, which surprised the redheaded men slightly.

"All right, come on then." the older man said as he moved his wand around them and across the wards too. Before they knew it, they had passed the barrier and the tall, twisted Burrow appeared in front of their eyes.

The moment they entered the Burrow, Rose felt a huge heaviness leaving their shoulders. She hadn't even noticed it, but since they left their house many hours before, she had been carrying a lot of worries. In some way, being back at the Burrow made everything much brighter. The Burrow always felt like a second home to them, and it was surely an improvement against being outside without any food or money (and it was certainly safer too).

"It's the same!" Hugo said in awe, earning a few suspicious glances from his uncle.

The boy wasn't lying. Even when the place had a few different things, it seemed as if nothing had changed. Everything was in the exact same position that they remembered and the feeling of coziness was as familiar and warm as ever. Only two things caught Rose's attention. The first one was obviously the lack of pictures of grand-kids, which were replaced by those of her father, Aunt Ginny and all of her uncles. It was really weird being surprised by so many pictures of them as kids when she had been seeing them as grown-ups her entire life.

Then there was the family clock which had fewer hands than the one in the future. This clock was actually visible because it was not flooded with the names of Weasleys from the future that had made it impossible to read. Rose was suddenly hit by the implications of their trip. All of those clock hands that were missing belonged to her family, and at that moment Rose didn't know if she was going to be able to see them again. She missed them all and, surprisingly, that included James.

Rose was about to recall all of her cousins when something else on the clock had made her freeze. All of the hands were unmistakably set to a label that seemed to be yelling **mortal peril**. Rose had only seen that clock in _mortal peril_ a couple of times in her life, and both times had been during pretty dangerous missions Uncle Harry had been on. The very thought of how complicated the situation must have been at this time made the girl pale.

"Arthur! What took you so long?" a familiar voice said from the kitchen as they walked towards said room. Hugo's smile appeared instantly, and Rose couldn't avoid to show a happy smile either. After all, they were hoping that their grandmother could understand them. She always knew what to say or do, even in the hardest of circumstances.

"It's... difficult to explain. You better sit down, sweetheart." her husband replied as the four of them entered the kitchen. Molly Weasley turned towards them and Rose was not surprised in finding that she looked almost the same as in her own time - just a few grey hairs less.

Soon, the surprise of looking at Rose and Hugo walking beside her husband and son became noticeable on Rose's grandmother, but she was not the only one. Rose's eyes went big also when she discovered that the woman was not alone in the kitchen.

"Who are they?!" a man said suddenly. Rose recognized him as a very young version of her uncle George, who was wearing the kind of clothes that he usually wore to work. Rose should've expected him to be there eating breakfast because it was very early and Uncle George was not married yet.

"Well I'm not sure Gred, but that one looks a lot like ickle Ronnie," another Uncle George added, and Rose gasped at the realization of just who was in front of her. So far, Rose's desires of seeing her father again were mixed with the remorse of having done something very wrong, but the sight of the two identical brothers brought an utterly different perspective, one that she hadn't thought about before. Yes, people that she knew didn't exist at this time period, but also there were people that she never got to meet, people who died way before she was even born. One of those people was Uncle Fred.

"Rose..." Hugo sighed with very wide eyes.

"I know," Rose whispered back.

"It seems that you are right Forge, but look closer, my brother. If there was a potion to turn someone into a Weasley, I would swear that we also have a Hermione here." the first twin said, pointing at Rose.

"It really seems so. She even comes with freckles and everything. Guess we should get our hands on that Weasley potion." said the second twin again, causing Rose to blush at the comment.

"Arthur, what is going on?" Rose's grandmother finally asked, ignoring the twins' words. She sounded very worried.

"As I said, we should all sit down."

"Dad, we have to get to the shop in-"

"It can wait," Rose's grandfather interrupted one of the twins. "This is urgent family business."

"Only if they are not impostors," Uncle Bill mumbled, throwing weird looks at both of them.

Once all of them were sitting at the kitchen table, the Weasley patriarch explained everything to her wife and sons, letting Uncle Bill fill in the details that he had missed. When he had finished, Rose turned to look at her grandmother, and wasn't surprised when she discovered that the woman's eyes were flickering in between them and the time turner that had been placed carefully on the table. Rose had been expecting a lot of similar reactions. The girl's eyes then went wide, thinking about the reaction their parents would have when they talked to them.

"A-Are you saying... that these are our grand-kids?" asked Rose's grandmother.

"That's what they are saying. We still haven't been able to verify it or deny it," added Uncle Bill, trying not to sound accusative.

"We are telling the truth!" yelled Hugo, but whatever he was planning on saying next was lost by a loud grumble coming from his stomach. "Sorry," he added, turning slightly red.

"Merlin! When was the last time you kids ate?"

"Last night Grandma, before leaving," Rose said shyly.

"Why didn't you say so?" the woman stood and hurried toward the oven.

Not long after, their grandfather left the room, stating that they needed Dumbledore, which really caught Rose's attention. She had been expecting him to show up at some point but she wasn't sure whether he would agree with what they had done. They'd have to be cautious around him. Rose only hoped that the wizard could be able to prove that they were saying the truth, and after that, maybe they could get their grandparents to support them with their plans.

Moments later, their grandmother served them with food plates, their faces brightening.

"Blimey! Look at them go!" one of the twins said with surprise, and when Rose discovered that he was talking about they way in which they were eating, she blushed. Rose usually was much calmer with food, but whenever she was really hungry, she couldn't help but speed things up a bit. Her mother always said that she had gotten this bad habit from her father but, at this point, anything that could make Rose remember her father was a good thing.

"Fred! Stop it. The kids haven't eaten in a while," the woman said sternly. She looked at Rose, her frown totally gone. "You don't worry, dear. If you want more, there's some more in the oven."

Rose felt embarrassed, so she tried to slow down a bit either way. "Thanks Grandma, but I think this will be enough."

"Well, it's not hard to guess who their father is, right Georgie?"

"Absolutely not."

"W-WGRat wOo ow-ou mWe-a-an?" asked Hugo between mouthfuls, Rose felt ashamed of her brother's manners.

"My dearest nephew, you look a lot like a particular redhead that we all love-"

"Also, there is the fact that we have a redheaded Hermione here-" said the other twin, pointing at Rose.

"And of course, there's also that weird table language that you just used."

"He's not always like that!" Rose protested unconvincingly.

"Even so, I must say that there is a high probability of you two being the kids of our lovely Ronnie and his adorable Hermione."

No-one really seemed surprised at that besides Rose and Hugo, as they had thought that they had travelled to a time when their parents were not yet together.

"Are they... going out? What year is this?" asked Rose, very scared of arriving too late.

"Those are two very different questions Rose." said her grandfather. "The year is 1996, 7th October to be more precise. About your other question, I am not sure but I believe that they are not together."

"Yet," added Uncle Bill.

Rose sighed in relief. They were in the right date, at least. "Then why did you said that they-"

"They are just blind, especially Ickle Ronnie-" said one of the twins.

"At this pace, I'm betting on our Hermione to make the first move," the other twin added, causing Rose and Hugo to smirk briefly. Because of that, they received weird looks from everyone around.

The twins' eyes brightened at once. "Hey! You could help us with a few bets."

"They sure know a few Quidditch results, my brother."

"FRED! GEORGE! NEITHER OF YOU WILL DO SUCH A THING!" the familiar yell of Rose's grandmother covered the kitchen. Even so, it was weird hearing her flapping over the twins' words like that since Rose's memories only had images of Uncle George being reprimanded. For Rose, it was a complete mystery how her grandmother would yell at every crazy idea from Uncle George, but not even once at her grandsons. In fact, all of James' and Freddie's mischiefs were usually attributed to Uncle George. But to be fair, Rose had to recognize that he was usually involved.

"You haven't said why are you here. You can talk now," said Rose's grandfather after he was sure that they had finished their breakfast.

"Oh yes," Rose started, and instantly her face turned grim, surprising many people. For a moment, she had felt much better surrounded by her family, even in the current situation. "Well, it all started last month. Our-"

TOC, TOC

Rose stopped suddenly at the noise of someone calling at the door. Her grandfather quickly stood up, walking towards it. "That must be Albus," he said. Hugo turned to look at his sister with a concerned look on his face. Apparently, he was also nervous of what the great Albus Dumbledore might say of their entire plan. Rose tried to look confident. If her uncle Harry's stories were true, then the old wizard would at least listen to them first.

"Let's all go to the living room," said Rose's grandmother after her husband left the kitchen. She stopped briefly to take a look at Rose. "Are you finished with that, dear? You can have more after we talk to Albus.."

"It's ok Grandma, I'm done," replied Rose with a wide smile.

"That's good," the woman said, still very much shaken, but she was able to smile back weakly at the girl.

Rose was happy of that, because at least she knew that their grandmother wouldn't leave them alone. Rose took a deep breath and walked towards the living room, followed by Hugo. The redheaded girl tried to keep her father present in her thoughts. If they could pass through Dumbledore's examination, then it was likely that they could see him again, and that filled her with strength.


	2. Difference of Opinion

**Thanks again to Inkzy and Jayelyyn for the help with this chap.**

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**ROSE**

Rose was comfortably seated next to her brother on one couch but she still didn't feel at ease. Albus Dumbledore was quite a presence and so far, he hadn't taken his sparkling blue eyes away from them. He was wearing a long cloak that looked blue, but kept on changing in the light.

Rose saw Dumbledore's right hand and she shivered. She knew why it was scarred; she knew that the old wizard would die soon. The headmaster seemed to notice her attention on his hand, but he didn't make any comment about it.

Everybody sat seriously in the living room, even Uncle George and Uncle Fred seemed to have forgotten about the joke shop. Albus Dumbledore didn't say anything until everyone was silently in their places.

"Good morning, Molly," started the old man. "Nice to see you on this lovely day."

"Good morning, Albus...hope we didn't take you out of something important."

"Don't worry. When there are so many important things around, everything becomes suddenly less important. Besides, if I heard correctly, this seems like a matter that requires my attention," the old wizard said, peering at the time turner through his half-moon spectacles.

Rose had heard a lot of descriptions about the old man, and a couple of times she even saw his portrait at the headmistress' office, but seeing him in person was very different. She could already feel his deep blue eyes analysing them, just as Uncle Harry used to say.

"Yes, it does," answered her grandmother, nodding.

"Messrs. Weasley, I hope that everything is running smoothly at your interesting businesses."

"Unrealistically well, Professor. You can come to take a look at it whenever you like-" started one of the twins. Rose still wasn't able to distinguish between them at all.

"We can give you good discounts," the other twin finished, smirking.

Rose's grandmother snorted at her son's lightness, but the headmaster didn't seem to notice. In fact, he smiled at the twins widely, as if that was the best of ideas. "That really sounds fascinating. I may pass by one of these days, thank you very much."

"Professor, has my father told you about our situation here?" Bill Weasley asked suddenly.

"Yes, he has Mr. Weasley, and I must say that I am pretty interested in knowing all the details," Dumbledore answered just before turning to look at Rose again. "Miss Weasley I presume?"

Rose took a deep breath before answering, "Yes, I'm Rose, and this is my brother Hugo."

"And you are here from the future?" asked the old man with a serious tone, at which both of them nodded.

"What year exactly, if I may ask?"

"2022," answered Hugo.

"Oh, I see. Do you have any evidence to support your statement? Other than this interesting device, of course," he said, looking at the time turner.

"Err... no, but we know things... about you... about the future."

"I do not think knowledge about the future is something to be thrown around so lightly, Miss Weasley. Perhaps you may be willing to confirm some of this under veritaserum."

"Albus! They're just kids!"

"Mum, it's the only way. We need to be sure," said Bill Weasley.

"He is right, sweetheart. I cannot think of any other way," added Rose's grandfather.

"It's ok, Grandma, I know how veritaserum works. I'll take it," answered Rose. In fact, she would have suggested it if the professor hadn't brought it up first. They really needed their family to believe them, or they would be all by themselves. They couldn't be alone, not now.

"Molly, do we have your consent?" asked Dumbledore.

The woman sighed, and even when she didn't look convinced, she nodded. "If she wants to do it, I won't complain. But you better not ask any more questions than needed."

"I wouldn't dare to ask more than what is strictly required," the old wizard said, turning his impressive blue eyes to face Rose. "Now, Miss Weasley, are you ready?" asked the man, taking a vial of transparent liquid out of his robes.

"Is that really...?" asked Hugo with wide eyes.

"Veritaserum, yes," the man answered.

"Are you sure?" the boy asked his sister.

"Of course I'm sure. We want them to believe us, don't we?"

"Yes, but... does it hurt?"

"It does not hurt, Hugo. It's just to make me say the truth," answered Rose, even when she had never drank the potion before. She decided it would be best to trust her family. It can't be that bad. There were many books about veritaserum and none of them mentioned pain as an effect.

"Miss Weasley is correct. There is no pain involved with this potion," said the headmaster.

"Okay," Hugo agreed with a nod. "Do you want me to do it instead?"

"No, it's all right. I'll take it."

The vial floated from the hands of Albus Dumbledore to where Rose was sat. It fell softly in the cradle of her hands. Rose doubted for a moment but she knew it was the only way so she took a small sip out of the vial after a quick reassuring look at her brother. The effect of the potion didn't take long because she instantly fell calm. It was a strange feeling, it felt as though nothing could go wrong, no matter what words came out of her mouth.

"What is your name?" asked Professor Dumbledore.

"Rose Weasley," the girl said without hesitation.

Gasps and incredulous reactions were heard across the room, but before someone could say something, the headmaster continued with the questioning. "What is your birth date?"

"October 10, 2006."

More surprised words echoed, especially from her Uncle Bill, who had probably been waiting for them to be revealed as impostors.

"Who are your parents?"

"Ronald Bilius Weasley and Hermione Jean Granger," she said.

"Shocking," one of the twins added, not looking surprised at that at all.

"But this is impossible! Time turners only go back a few hours!"

"This one's better! Mum made it!" Hugo yelled, stunning his Uncle Bill.

"What do you think, my brother?" said Uncle George - or Uncle Fred.

"It does seem like our Hermione. You know, being all smart and stuff."

More words were exchanged, but Rose didn't understand anything more until Professor Dumbledore spoke again, "It does seem like something that Miss Granger is capable of. She is, after all, a remarkably talented witch. I believe they are telling the truth, and that only leaves us with bigger problems."

"But what about the war? This must mean that Ron and Hermione survive the war..."

Quickly, Rose found herself wanting to answer that as if it was something that she really needed to do. "The war ends on the 2nd of May, 1998. Both of our parents survived it," she added, like it was something very obvious.

Rose's grandmother gasped, but she was not the only one surprised. "But that is more than a year from now! That's way too long!" she said.

"Molly dear, calm down. Everything's alright," Rose's grandfather said as he walked towards his wife.

"B-But what about Voldemort? Is he dead - in your time?" Bill asked, finally accepting Rose was telling them the truth.

"Uncle Harry killed him during the Battle of Hogwarts," answered Rose, and a huge silence covered the entire room. Everyone from the past was stunned now, except for the headmaster - who seemed reasonably delighted.

"Harry!? He survives... oh Merlin, Arthur!"

"I know, sweetheart, it will all end," Rose's grandfather said as he embraced his wife.

"He... kills him!" said one of the twins.

"Yes he does!" added the other one with victorious expression. "That's our Harrykins; I never doubted him."

"Battle of Hogwarts?" asked Bill, thrilled.

"The Battle of Hogwarts ended the war. It was the final battle against Tom Riddle," said Rose, not even trying to control what she was saying anymore. A couple of times before, she had tried to respond partially, but the potion was too powerful for her to resist it.

Many shocked expressions spread around the room, especially from Rose's grandparents, who had just realized what a Battle at Hogwarts meant. At that moment, many people tried to talk, but they were quickly stopped by Professor Dumbledore. "I believe that this is getting out of our hands. I urge you to refrain from asking more questions."

"B-But..."

"Molly, future knowledge is very dangerous and we need to act with caution," the old man said and, after a long pause, the woman looked away and nodded.

"It is the best thing to do, sweetheart. Albus is right," added her husband.

"Now, Miss Weasley, could you please tell us how do you ended up here?" Professor Dumbledore took control of the conversation again.

"We took our mother's time turner and used it to arrive at this time deliberately."

The answer caused commotion in the room, because clearly everybody knew that time was not something to take lightly. Professor Dumbledore's face was looking very severe, though.

"And why would you do that?" he asked, quite stiff.

"We wanted to make our parents get together sooner, before their seventh year."

The headmaster's eyebrows raised a bit, and Rose's fear at his reaction increased. "I must assume that there is a very powerful purpose behind that. Time is not something to play with."

Everyone's attention was fixed on Rose as she answered, "We did it to save our father."

"Save your father? From what? What happened to Ron?" Rose's grandmother shouted quickly.

Rose opened her mouth, but before she could answer, Hugo's mute voice echoed in the silent room, "He died."

The worst reaction was from Rose's grandmother, who almost fell to the floor in surprise. Fortunately, her husband was able to get a hold of her before that. Rose's uncles weren't looking much better, and disbelieving phrases were thrown, as if what Hugo just said wasn't even remotely possible. Rose hated herself right then because the serum was still pushing her to give an answer.

"He died," she confirmed her brother's answer, "weeks ago. We needed to change it."

Pale faces were spread across the room the moment that Rose was able to focus on them again. Her Uncle Bill looked beaten and the twins looked shocked. Still, her grandparents were the ones that got the biggest blow. Shadows of gloom covered their faces and it made Rose flinch. It was heartbreaking. Rose felt a gut-wrenching pain in her chest, it felt as though she was experiencing everything all over again, and she didn't know if she could take that now.

"Can't you give her the antidote already?" Bill Weasley's voice sounded alien, not his at all.

"I will. The serum is unnecessary at this point," Professor Dumbledore answered, sending another vial towards Rose. The moment she took the antidote, things got worse. The calm abandoned her immediately, and she was back again in a room filled with people who had just found out that her father was going to die. Her eyes started watering.

"This situation is, admittedly, very regrettable." the headmaster rushed the words once Rose was free of the serum. Weirdly enough, Rose noticed that great sorrow weighed on his voice. "But Miss Weasley, considering who your mother is, I must say I am surprised that you decided to do this. Death is a natural thing," he finished.

"Are you saying that they shouldn't be here? But Ron-" Bill Weasley tried.

"Mr. Weasley, I know that this might sound harsh, and I am really sorry. I appreciate your brother greatly, but you have to believe me in this: time is a puzzling matter. It should not be taken lightly, and I am afraid that it should not be used to stop people from dying," he finished with a dark shadow over his face.

"We're sorry! We know that, but we didn't think. We wanted him back!" yelled Hugo.

"And that is very comprehensible, but I must say that it doesn't make it right, my boy. Your intentions might have been honourable but time is not a toy. Your future seems bright, and now you might have compromised that."

Hugo lowered his eyes heavily. Rose knew the man was saying the truth, but she didn't feel comfortable with her brother being reprimanded like that.

"But we need to do something," said Rose's grandmother, speaking for the first time since the news broke out.

"We really need to think of what to do next. If we keep the current timeline as close as possible to the previous one, we may prevent a lot of damage."

"Prevent damage!? My son is going to die! Surely you're not hoping to let that happen again?"

"Molly, please listen to me. This is far beyond any of us. We need to ensure the stability of the current timeline, and later we need to worry about the war that is taking place. This situation might have changed the outcome of everything," Professor Dumbledore said calmly.

"I am not going to let my son die!" Rose's grandmother stood up between the headmaster and her grandchildren. Right then, Rose turned suddenly afraid of what might happen.

The tension in the room was unnerving. Even when everybody else's attention was focused on Professor Dumbledore or Rose's grandmother, the girl's thoughts were very far away. Until then, she hadn't thought of all the things that could change. Now, the idea of different people dying because of their travel, or the fact they could lose the war, was something that she couldn't deal with. The sole image of what her mother would say to her was the worst feeling she had experienced in her entire life.

She thought of her cousins more than before. She always knew that travelling back could mean that none of them would be born, but she had been denying it to herself. First, in the rush of deciding to go back, and then trying to not think about it. But she always knew. It had just been the heat of the moment. They shouldn't be there.

"There are many things at stake; you had always known that. Not everything can end up as we would've liked."

"Not Ron! He is not a part of this! Merlin, he's not even of age!" yelled Rose's grandmother.

The old wizard turned to look at Rose's grandfather. It was not clear if he was looking for support or if he was just trying to find out the man's opinion on this, but Arthur Weasley voiced his mind soon enough. "I'm sorry Albus, I'm with Molly on this. We all are," said the man. He turned to look at his newfound grand-kids. "If I had known of your plans in the future, I wouldn't had let you continue with them. But now that you're here, we can't just ignore it."

Rose was more afraid than ever. Her uncles and her grandfather stood right next to Rose's grandmother, shielding the siblings from the headmaster. She couldn't remember a moment filled with more tension in her entire life. Hugo was shivering next to her.

"I see," was all the headmaster said as he stood up, probably weighing his options. Rose knew the old wizard could take all of them if what she had read was true, but doing it wouldn't guarantee keeping the time unchanged. Many things can happen in a confrontation like that.

"Albus, I think you should go now," Rose's grandfather said.

"I am not the villain here, Arthur. Your son was not underage at the time this happened. I guess he got to live a peaceful and happy life - something that people in this war will not have the privilege to experience. I want to be sure that you know what this means. People who didn't die on the original timeline could die now. The war could be lost."

Silence spread around the room, and with every word of the headmaster, Rose felt heavier. She had done wrong. She always knew she was doing wrong, and still she brought them back. Just thinking about her mother being ashamed of her judgement tore her heart apart.

Rose's grandfather nodded. "I know you are right; I know they did terribly wrong," he started, "but I can't stand at your side on this, Albus. You need to understand me too... you better go. We might talk later, when we have thought this through."

Albus Dumbledore remained silent for a moment, but finally nodded. "So be it. Can I at least take this artefact with me? To get a second look at it?"

Rose's grandfather considered it, but he shook his head. "Not now. We don't want you trying anything behind our backs. Sorry."

The headmaster of Hogwarts didn't make a gesture of being surprised. He only nodded. "I know the way out."

Before walking away, the old man turned to look at Rose. His expression didn't change, but she knew the man was disappointed. Rose didn't know the man at all, but in some way, that look felt very wrong.

As soon as the old wizard left, Rose's grandfather left the room. Rose and Hugo were quickly embraced by their grandmother. "Everything will be all right; don't worry," she said. Her hands were shaking, and Rose saw her eyes watering. That broke her more than everybody else's reaction. She had done that to her grandmother through her reckless actions. Rose started sobbing, no longer trying to remain strong for her brother.

When her grandmother let them go, Rose saw her uncles still in the living room. The twins had gone pale, their eyes looked lost. They were standing together as if they didn't fit in the room. Uncle Bill was resting against a wall, still gripping at his wand and sweating. Rose hadn't realized it, but they had all been ready to fight Albus Dumbledore a few moments earlier, and they were going to do it because of them.

"I'm sorry, Grandma, we really didn't think this through... If I had just... I'm sorry," Rose rushed with tears in her blue eyes.

She scooped her up in another embrace, whispering, "Don't worry; it is done."

Hugo joined them. "It was not Rose's fault! I wanted to come too!"

As they continued struggling with their burdens and their decisions, Rose saw Uncle Bill staring at them. She didn't know what he was thinking or if he was blaming them for all of it. He should be.

"It's done." Her grandfather returned to the room. His voice sounded grim. "No one from The Order will be able to enter through the wards without our consent now. Only Weasleys."

Rose's eyes grew bigger. They were leaving the Order? She was already affecting time more than she planned to. It was all a mess.

"What about Fleur?" Uncle Bill asked, still staring at Rose. "She's out with Tonks."

"Go get her," his father answered him after a while. "We need to tell her."

Uncle Bill threw a weird look at Rose and Hugo, and then exited the house.

Rose's grandfather walked up to Rose and Hugo, looking at them directly in the eyes. "You need to understand something. All of you do," he said, the last part looking at the twins, who nodded. "What you have done is terribly wrong. You have compromised a lot, and I can't lie about it. It hurts me, but Albus is right."

"I'm sorry Grandpa, I really didn't want to... It was just a foolish impulse. We were just-" Rose started, but she was interrupted with a gesture from her grandfather.

"It was really wrong, and maybe there's nothing we can do to fix this damage." he released a heavy sigh. "Still, I can imagine what you must have been feeling, to do something like this. We are with you. I don't know what we'll do about Ron yet, but we will keep you safe. This will always be your house; we are your family."

Rose nodded, feeling very heavy.

"Arthur, we have to do something about Ron!"

"He's not in immediate danger, is he?" he asked Rose and Hugo. When they shook their heads, the man continued, "In that case, we'll see what is the best thing to do later. For now, I think we all need some rest."

"We can stay," said one of the twins.

Their father turned to them. "You can if you want to, but you can go to work also. The Order of the Phoenix is not an enemy; they're just not sharing all of our goals now. They will not do anything to you there. You only need to watch out for Death Eaters, as you have been doing so far. No word of this to anyone, and especially no owls to Hogwarts."

Both of them assented.

"Hugo dear, you can stay in your father's room for now," said Rose's grandmother. "Rose, you know where your Aunt Ginny's room is, right? I don't think that she would mind."

Rose took her brother upstairs to get some rest. After all, they didn't sleep at all the previous night. They both headed to their father's room without having to think twice.

The moment they entered the familiar room, they were overwhelmed. It had a lot more things than they remembered, but they were good things, orange and Quidditch all around. Rose couldn't hold back a couple of tears at the memory of their father. She walked to the camp bed (that was probably used by her Uncle Harry) and fell there, looking at the ceiling.

"Everything is going to be ok, right?" Hugo's voice came from the other bed.

"I don't know, Hugo. Grandpa is right, we shouldn't be here."

"But we are. So… is the plan still moving forward? Are we still going to bring Dad and Mum together sooner?" Hugo insisted, sounding worried.

Rose shrugged. "I- I really don't know. We'll see what Grandpa says once everybody is more calmed. Even if we were trying to bring them together, how are we going to reach them at Hogwarts? We would have to wait a couple of months when they return for Christmas."

Hugo remained silent for a moment. "What if Dumbledore keeps them there? What if he doesn't let them come back?"

She was startled, that thought hadn't crossed her mind but it felt unlikely. At least, she hoped so. "I don't think that he would do that. People would become suspicious... and we can always write to them, or... I don't know. There must be a way of contacting them."

Soon, Rose fell a sleep, beaten by tiredness. She didn't dream at all, but somehow the worries were running through her thoughts the whole time. It was as if she was in a dark place with no way out. She had tried to do things better, and now she didn't know if she could stop them from becoming being worse."

It felt like a long time passed before she woke up. It was well past noon and the first thing she noticed was that she was covered with a blanket, and her trainers were neatly arranged by the foot of the bed. Hugo was still asleep under another blanket. Rose was sure that he hadn't noticed their grandmother coming into the room either.

Rose stood up and started looking curiously through some of her father's things. Most of them brought back memories, and she knew that she would give anything in that moment to hug him one last time. Rose was holding a picture of her parents and Uncle Harry, when her grandmother's low voice came from the door.

"You'll see him soon. We'll find a way. How did you sleep?"

Rose forced a smile and tried to contain her tears. "Pretty well, Grandma. Thanks. I was tired."

The woman smiled back. "It is lovely to have you here. Is your brother going to-"

"Not now," she replied.

"Just like Ron," her grandmother answered, her voice breaking out at the last part. Both of them were very sad and serious. It was clear the woman had been crying too. Her eyes were puffy and red.

"You can take a shower if you want to, dear. I put some clothes for you there. They're Ginny's, but I already enlarged them," her grandmother said. "It's not the best, but I think they'll fit."

"It's perfect. Thanks."

Rose took a considerably long, hot shower, trying to think of something else. She couldn't, though. The whole time, she kept wishing that nothing went wrong with this trip. The hot water had calmed her slightly, despite her current situation.

She walked back in the room and saw that Hugo was still asleep. Rose woke him up to tell him she was going to be downstairs. She wasn't sure if her brother had heard her, but she went down either way. As she had walked into the kitchen, she met a young Fleur Delacour. To her grandmother's surprise, she started talking very cheerfully with her. Rose told Fleur about their future kids, but she tried not to say much - her grandfather insisted on that.

Hugo came down for dinner, and then the topic was finally discussed.

"I still don't get it." Uncle Bill was the one who started it. "If what you say is right, your parents get together in a year or so. How will them being together a year sooner stop Ron from... you know…?"

Rose exchanged a look with her brother and nodded. They explained everything about their father's disease. Rose could still hear the healer's words echoing in her ears. He'd had a heart problem - one that magic couldn't fix. They explained everything about that bloody deluminator, and how the St. Mungo's experts ended up saying that it was that artefact- the one that had caused it all.

Everyone was silent, especially when they couldn't fight back the tears.

"It was Dumbledore?!" Rose's grandmother finally yelled. "He gave this... this thing to my son?!"

"Molly, let them finish." her husband tried to contain her, but he was quite stunned too.

Rose nodded. "Uncle Harry was furious; I had never seen him like that. He talked to his portrait, you know - Dumbledore's portrait, that is." a few gasps echoed around the room when they realized what that meant. "I don't think Professor Dumbledore knew it could have that effect. Uncle Harry said that he had never seen that kind of remorse on a portrait before."

"And... being with Hermione will stop him from using this?" Uncle Bill asked. "We won't let it get to his hands! This has nothing to do with Hermione."

"Of course we won't!" Rose's grandmother yelled. "Dumbledore can keep that stupid artefact! That whole Dumbledore's mission thing is nonsense too! They were underage! He could put this mission on Aurors from the Order!"

"The mission was needed; that's what Uncle Harry says," Rose answered. "Without it, he wouldn't have been able to defeat Voldemort."

Rose's grandmother flinched a bit. "Well, someone else could have done it!"

"It had to be them," Hugo added, lowering his voice as he looked at his grandmother, "That's what they said."

The twins returned from work at that moment and, after saying that no one passed by the shop, they were told the whole story.

"It's not that I don't want ickle Ronnie and Hermione together," one of them started, "but, again, how does our dearest sister-in-law fit in all this? "

"Fred!" the other twin added, moving his eyes to Fleur.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I meant one of our dearest sisters-in-law."

Uncle Bill rolled his eyes while Fleur smiled.

Rose watched the exchange for a moment and she proceeded to explain all about her father leaving her mother and Uncle Harry behind, and how the deluminator had brought him back. She hadn't known that until her mother explained it a week before. No-one wanted to say a thing about it, ever, but they had thought Rose and Hugo needed to understand what caused the whole thing. Rose's mother and Uncle Harry had kept wards on their mission, so her father had kept using that light to find them, and he used it a lot.

"He left them!?" Uncle Bill was dumbfounded, as well as everybody else.

"He didn't mean to! It was that thing! Their mission! It messed with his head!" Hugo insisted.

"I 'aven't 'eard of any object doing somezing like zat?" asked Fleur.

"We don't know what altered him; they didn't tell us. They just said it was something from their mission!"

"I don't want to hear a thing about that mission ever again!" Rose's grandmother shouted.

"Molly dear, that thing seemed to be required for the war to end. Maybe if we can explain to Albus that this artefact is dangerous, we could change everything back to the way it was before!"

"I don't care about the way it was before! I don't want them risking their lives like that! I want that mission to disappear!"

The arguments continued and Rose and Hugo exchanged worried looks. They didn't know where all of this would be going. They asked more things about the mission of course, but the truth was that Rose and Hugo didn't know much. The only thing they were certain of was that if their father was with their mother then there would be no way of him getting his hands on that deluminator. They were convinced he wouldn't leave her like that. A couple of nights, Rose even heard her mother crying about it, saying to no one that she should never have let him go.

Yes, her father wouldn't need a deluminator if he had her mother. She was sure of that. Her mother wouldn't have let him leave in the first place.

Taking the deluminator away entirely was never the plan though. Rose had thought that removing the deluminator completely would affect the future too much. She had initially believed that matching her parents together sooner was less relevant to the mission than an artefact mentioned in Dumbledore's will. However, as soon as they got back, it became clear that there was no way of proceeding without altering other things. She realized that in the new state of things, it was way easier to stop their father from getting the deluminator altogether.

Rose wondered if the headmaster would agree to that, but even if he did, Rose wouldn't know what to do next. She didn't have a plan to return. As far as she knew, time turners only went one way and there was no going back. Their presence in the past was going to affect the future much more than the deluminator, and her grandmother was already opposing a mission that needed to happen. She really hadn't thought this through.

"We'll have to leave this for later," Rose's grandfather finally said. "I'll need to talk to Albus about this deluminator first; maybe we could come to an agreement."

"Are you going to call him?"

"Not now - maybe tomorrow. Or maybe he'll call us first. This has been hard for all of us, but we are a family and we will get through with this."

After everyone agreed, the moved onto lighter topics. Rose felt some of the sadness in the room lift when they mentioned Uncle Percy. She knew that he had some trouble with the family at the moment, but she never knew that it had been so serious. He was not talking to the family at all. It was a nice thing, telling everybody that he had returned, but they received mixed opinions when she said it would still take him another year to do so.

"Maybe we could get Uncle Percy back sooner," Hugo said on their way upstairs, a few hours later.

"Hugo, we aren't changing things remember? We've done plenty of wrong already."

"Well, if we happen to change things either way - if things can't go back - can we try it then?"

Rose snorted. "This is not something to take lightly, Hugo. We'll fix things, but as close as possible to the way they were before."

"All right," Hugo muttered begrudgingly.

The bushy haired girl said goodnight to her brother at her Aunt Ginny's bedroom. She wondered what was yet to come. She wanted to be hopeful. Dumbledore wouldn't want to be the one to cause her father's death. The headmaster had to agree to let that small part of the future change; he had to keep the deluminator away from Ron and hope that everything else remained the same. But what if it didn't?

Rose's eyes widened. What if the headmaster refused? Would the Weasleys forever be out of the Order?

Her mother had always said that time was not a toy. She would surely be very angry for what they had done so far, but they had already done it. Things had already changed. If the headmaster didn't want to help, she would find a way to save her family without messing with the past. She had to find a way...


	3. The Agreement

**Some people had pointed out that this story is pretty similar to one from Vance McGill... I haven't read that one so I didn't got the idea from there. Have some things planned here so hope it is a lot different to that one. I don't think I'll read Vance's for now, scared of grabbing things from there unconsciously.  
**

**Thanks to Jayelyyn and Inkzy for the help betaing this chap.**

* * *

**HUGO**

For most of the day, Hugo's grandfather was absent. He didn't have to contact Professor Dumbledore at all since the old wizard had hurried to arrange a meeting way before Hugo had woken up.

Breakfast was calm and exceedingly more joyful than the previous day. Uncle Fred and Uncle George were in a good mood, they had tried to make all of them laugh as much as possible. It appeared as if all the stories Hugo had heard didn't do them justice. The boy was fascinated with their ways (especially all the talk about joke products) but his grandmother didn't want the twins to fill Hugo's head with such things.

Despite all of this, Rose's attitude was pretty serious and Hugo knew why. Every time he saw her, the smile from his face vanished and he remembered all they had done wrong; even so, he tried to distract himself. There was not much he could do to fix it at the moment. He tried to cheer his sister up; they had to focus on the good things for now.

Hugo knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help feeling a lot better every time he remembered his father was alive at that moment, somewhere at Hogwarts. With a little bit of luck, they would be able to keep him away from that deluminator. Rose shouldn't bash herself all day because of what they had done; they needed to think of what they were going to do now that they had done it.

Aunt Fleur was very kind to them also, it had really surprised Hugo that his grandmother didn't seem to like her very much. As far as he remembered, they were very close, always moving around in the kitchen together. It was very hard at the beginning, with her accent and all; it wasn't as thick in the future so it had took him by surprise when he first heard her. On the other hand, Uncle Bill was indifferent towards them. He helped around a lot and constantly asked how they were doing but Hugo had spotted the looks he gave when he thought they weren't watching. Uncle Bill was tense, probably wondering how much damage their presence could cause.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Hugo said, sometime around noon. He was lying on the camp bed in his father's room, feeling quite bored. Rose was pacing slowly around the room, attempting to find something new. She had already went through all in sight.

"Grandpa and Professor Dumbledore?" she asked, turning to her brother.

"Yeah."

"Don't know. Maybe Dumbledore is trying to convince Grandpa that the best thing to do is to erase everyone's memories."

"They wouldn't do that, right?" Hugo said, raising his voice just a little. "I mean, we are already here and... they can't. Where would that put us? Would he try to lock us somewhere while the war finishes? I don't think he can send us back."

"I guess that's why he wanted to look at the time turner."

"Rubbish! Grandpa wouldn't agree with that. And you listened to him - he wants to help us with Dad!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Grandpa didn't say that. He said he still had to think about what to do with what we said. He knows it was wrong, too."

Hugo snorted, staring at the ceiling. The silence was unnerving. "What if we write to him?" he finally asked, trying to sound casual.

"Who? Dad? Are you nuts!? Grandpa said that-"

"All right, all right, it was just an idea."

They remained silent for a moment. Hugo was frowning. Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard alive - would he really do something as cruel as wiping someone's memory? Hugo wasn't sure whether the wards on the Burrow would keep him away. What would he do if Grandpa didn't agree with him? Hugo's parents were at Hogwarts at that moment, so were Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. From the stories he was told, they were all very close to the headmaster and they probably didn't have any idea of what was going on.

Hugo heard a slow sigh from his sister as she sat down on the bed beside him.

"Look, I miss him too, okay? Let's see what Grandpa says first," Rose said with a smile.

Hugo nodded. "But if Dumbledore insists on wiping our memories or in giving that ruddy deluminator to Dad, we'll contact him then, right?"

"Maybe, but not by a letter! That's way too dangerous."

Hugo looked confusedly at her"There are Death Eaters out there, Hugo! Tom Riddle is too! We can't risk an owl being intercepted - I assume it would be pretty bad if they found out about us."

Hugo's eyes widened. He hadn't thought about that. Voldemort was alive and he had completely forgotten about it, what with the whole Dumbledore thing. If the dark wizard found out about them, Hugo couldn't imagine what problems may arise. Voldemort would surely try to change things if he knew he was defeated last time. Their presence there was turning more problematic with each new possibility.

"Okay," Hugo finally answered.

It was not until dinner that Hugo's grandfather returned. He looked serious and asked everyone to gather in the living room where he told them everything he'd discussed with Professor Dumbledore.

The headmaster had insisted on erasing their memories, but Hugo's grandfather had refused; the surprising part though, was that the old wizard said he had a proposal and he wanted to meet them the next day to talk about it. Hugo exchanged a look with his sister nervously.

If they agreed with that, then the headmaster could perform the memory charms himself. Dumbledore might have thought it through, and decided he had made a mistake in not confronting the Weasleys before.

"You said no, of course," Hugo's grandmother said, and when she didn't get an answer from her husband, she insisted, "Arthur...?"

"I said I was going to think about it."

"But you know what the man wants! I won't let him take my grandchildren from us!"

Rose grabbed Hugo's hand there - she was pretty nervous also. What should they do? Should they run away?

"His proposal was reasonable."

"Reasonable!? That's what he wants us to believe-"

"Molly please, just let me finish."

When the room was silent, he continued, "He says that not all of us have to be here, that someone can take them somewhere else while we talk. So we could have someone out there knowing the truth, as a guarantee."

Hugo saw his grandmother getting nervous. Maybe she was thinking it through, trying to find another argument to protest with.

The boy was confused. Where would they go? Would they be safe, or was it all a trap to get them out in the open?

"I was looking for a house," said Uncle Bill suddenly, "you know, for us after the wedding; well, Aunt Etna is interested in selling me her house in Cornwall. We used to go there for vacations a few years ago, remember? Well, I still have some doubts but maybe I could finish the deal and take them there - put it under Fidelius charm."

"Shell Cottage?" asked Rose.

"Yes, you... know?"

"Buy it, you'll love it." was all she responded with.

Uncle Bill looked troubled, but he ended up smiling as he turned to his fiancé. "Guess we have the house."

"I still don't trust him; not with this..." Hugo's grandmother insisted.

"He also said that he was bringing Professor McGonagall, and that both would leave their wands before entering the house."

Molly had been reassured, but the argument continued. Still, by the time they headed to the table, they had all decided to hear the old wizard out at least. They needed to get to a common ground if they were still going to follow their actions against Tom Riddle.

The next afternoon, Uncle Bill came announcing the deal was closed, and that he had already put all the required charms on his new house. Hugo's grandfather then arranged the meeting with Professor Dumbledore to be the next day.

When Uncle Fred and Uncle George came for dinner that night, all the plans were set. Hugo and Rose were going to be with Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur at Shell Cottage while everybody else met the headmaster. That included closing the joke shop for a few hours.

Hugo went to bed feeling very nervous, surprisingly he didn't feel sleepy at all when he was woken up the next morning. They had their breakfast quite early and as soon as they reached the table, Rose found herself enveloped in the arms of their grandmother.

"Happy Birthday, dear," the woman said.

Rose looked stunned. "How did you..." then she turned to Hugo, who was grinning at her.

"Don't look at me; you did say it during the interrogation."

"We will have a special dinner - and a cake in the afternoon, of course. Everything will be fine, I promise."

A smile formed slowly on Rose's face as she embraced her grandmother and then her brother. Everybody around was also quick to congratulate her. Although, it was weird thinking about Rose's birthday without their parents around.

"Guess we'll have to find a way to test if the trace was lifted from her wand, but later. Now, we have to hurry," said Uncle Bill.

After breakfast, they Apparated to Shell Cottage. It was a nasty sensation, but even before opening his eyes, the smell of fresh sea soothed Hugo. It was exactly as he remembered, at least on the outside. When they first opened the door, though, they found the place completely empty.

"There's an old table around here, but not much else. It was used mostly as a holiday house," said Uncle Bill.

"It is perfect," Aunt Fleur answered with a wide smile.

For the rest of the morning, they help Uncle Bill clean the house a bit. Hugo got the worst part, of course - they were going soft with Rose because of her birthday. He didn't complain; the cleaning distracted him from the meeting his grandparents were going to have with Albus Dumbledore.

After quickly eating some sandwiches for lunch, they walked out of the house. Uncle Bill told them not to go too far away since the Fidelius charm had its limits.

Hugo sat on the sand a few yards away from the moving sea. Rose joined him shortly. For a long time, they didn't say a word, enjoying the sound of the waves caressing the wet sand. There was no way the headmaster could reach them so far from the Burrow and under the Fidelius charm. He never planned on setting a trap, which made his proposal much more intriguing.

"I'm sure Grandpa wouldn't agree if it wasn't a good thing," said Rose finally, still staring at the sea.

"Guess so," answered Hugo in a lazy voice.

"Mum won't let him agree if it isn't," a third voice said calmly behind them. It was Uncle Bill.

Standing up at their back, he looked quite different: he was tall and handsome, and his bright red hair moved gracefully in the wind. The absence of the scars gave his appearance an air of youth that his personality usually had. Rose and Hugo smiled at him as he crouched down behind them.

Together they stared at the sea, thinking of what was yet to come.

"You were right, I already love this place," the young man said with a smile.

"Told you," Rose said.

"You know, I think I'm going to like you two. Maybe more than your parents," he added, laughing. "Am I a good uncle?"

"The best," said Rose.

"Good to know. I'm here for whatever you need, I hope you know that. I was a bit shaken at the beginning - I do believe you did wrong - but now you're here I am on your side. I won't let anything bad happen to Ron."

Hugo felt very happy at those words, as if his burden had suddenly become lighter.

A white and blue light came floating towards them, and when it reached them, Uncle Bill stood up. The light was a patronus, a weasel.

"We're here. Everything is alright. They left already, bring Rose and Hugo," said the weasel with the calm voice of Hugo's grandfather.

Hugo exchanged a worried look with Rose, and then with Uncle Bill, who smiled. "Don't worry, patronuses can't be faked. Let's go and get Fleur."

They walked back to the cottage, and once they told Fleur about the message, they hurried to Apparate back to the Burrow. Uncle Bill said there was nothing to fear, but still went first alone, and soon returned to them, saying that everything was safe. Hugo's grandparents, Uncle Fred and Uncle George, were still in the living room. There were no signs of Albus Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall.

Hugo's grandfather asked them to take a seat and he spoke loud and clear, "We heard the proposal, it is a good one since they're apparently in a hurry. Two new beds have appeared at Hogwarts, and the registers have been modified."

Rose and Hugo were stunned.

"Two beds?" asked Uncle Bill, in the same state of surprise.

"The school is sensing Rose and Hugo in some way. They can't hide it for too long unless they put someone in there."

"He doesn't really want to-" Uncle Bill started with surprise, "... he wouldn't... he should have better options."

Hugo's grandfather smiled. "He doesn't. He doesn't want Voldemort finding out and he can't pull two students out of his hat."

"What about polyjuice?"

"Apparently he doesn't want two adults passing as students in his school, besides the potion takes a long time to make and is very costly - the Order needs it for other affairs. They don't have enough for two people using it for that long, either."

"That changes things..." Uncle Bill said.

"It sure does."

"I- I don't get it," Hugo said. "Two beds in Hogwarts because of us? How is he going... He's is not thinking that we...?" Hugo started, looking at his sister.

"I think he is," said Rose, still shocked.

"'e needs zem," said Fleur, quite surprised.

Hugo's grandfather nodded. "That is, in part, why Minerva was here - she's informed of everything. They want you two to go to Hogwarts under false identities."

"Going back to Hogwarts? With Mum and Dad?" asked Hugo incredulously. He still couldn't believe it; he'd thought it was going to be much more complicated.

"Yes, but they want you to promise that you won't tell them anything in order to keep the future intact. He has been very troubled about all this. He promised to check on the deluminator and take it out of the mission he is-"

Hugo's grandmother snorted, "Again with that stupid mission! I didn't agree with that part."

"We'll see about that later, honey. At least he promised to keep the deluminator out of it, so Rose and Hugo won't really need to contact their parents," the man said to his wife. He then turned to his grandchildren. "You would have to stay at Hogwarts or Shell Cottage during the holidays but he said that if we haven't been able to send you back by the end of the war, we could tell your parents everything. He wants the time turner though."

Rose and Hugo stared at each other with troubled expressions. It looked like a fair proposal - it didn't just save their father, but it was also the best option in regards to keeping the future unchanged. Still... it was complicated. How could they spend so much time that close to the people they loved without talking to them? Without a hug from their father?

"I know what this means for you, but it's definitely better than we expected."

"Even better if we can put a few products on your trunks..." one of the twins said, winking at them.

"Fred! This is serious!"

"There's something that's still worrying me," said Uncle Bill. "How are we sure they will keep their word about the deluminator, or that Rose and Hugo will be alright there?"

"Albus promised to do an unbreakable vow," said Hugo's grandfather soberly.

"That doesn't count!" Rose said quickly. "He's already dying!"

Hugo's grandmother gasped as everybody else's eyes opened wide.

"He... is?" asked their grandfather.

Rose and Hugo nodded. "His hand - you saw it - it's cursed, and there's nothing he can do about it. I know we shouldn't talk about the future, but I thought... the vow, and..."

Many serious faces spread on the room, some of them worried.

"It's all right, Rose. I'll talk with him. We have some points to clarify either way."

"What points?" asked Uncle Bill.

"He wanted our memories erased while the war was active, but we refused. That was mostly our main concern, and I think that Minerva was with us. Albus said he would think about it."

"Well, he surely has to agree. He needs them on those two beds if he doesn't want questions being asked."

The argument continued so Rose and Hugo admitted that Hogwarts was going to be under Voldemort's control after Dumbledore's death, and that might compromise them either way. Everybody was shocked, especially Hugo's grandmother but after trying to ask more about it, Hugo's grandfather stopped her. He said he would also mention it to the headmaster since they needed to guarantee their safety.

More points were discussed, and by the end of the day, everybody had agreed with the plan. If the headmaster accepted their petitions, they would go forward with it. Hugo was terrified; he didn't know what seeing his father again would feel like, especially since he would barely even be allowed to look at him.

Hugo noticed his sister was troubled too. She appeared to be excited but also worried. Too many things could go wrong, and he didn't know what the headmaster would ask of them to guarantee their silence. He also wondered what would happen if they broke some of the rules - not really intentionally - if they got caught by accident. How would Dumbledore react to that?

With those worries, they went to bed. Hugo had a nightmare that day of his parents and Uncle Harry following him around the school, and he resisting to telling them, but Dumbledore ended up finding out in the dream and he vanished them away. Rose was sent to a different place and he just screamed for her - then out of nowhere, he saw his father dying either way, despite all their efforts to keep him alive.

Hugo woke up sweating. It was an awful nightmare and he was not used to them. He needed to go to the bathroom, put some water on his face and calm down. On his way down, he went to look at Rose; he hoped that she was awake so they could talk a bit. When he knocked weakly at the door however, he didn't get any response. Hugo opened the door a little, and there he saw her, still asleep but thrashing around in her bed. Rose was having a nightmare too.

Hugo woke her up and after a moment, they were both hugging each other and talking about the situation. They missed everybody - not only their father, but their mother and everybody else too. They could cause so many tragedies just by being there - they should have never had left.

The next morning, breakfast was silent and tense. Everybody was in deep thought, but that was over immediately once Hugo's grandfather rushed into the kitchen. He had been away talking with the headmaster, but as soon as Hugo saw the light smile on his face, he knew what was going to happen.

"He accepted," he said. "You are going to Hogwarts."


	4. A New First Day

**HUGO**

It was a real shame to miss the trip to Diagon Alley, Hugo would have loved to see the shops as they were right now. He wondered how much different the joke shop would look with both of his uncles in it.

Unfortunately the redhead boy had to remain in the Burrow with his sister while all the essential things for Hogwarts were brought to them. They were not supposed to be seen, someone could notice them and maybe associate them with their parents.

Rose suggested at one point that they could make the trip in their new identities but the idea was refused too, someone could recognize them later as the new kids at Hogwarts and it would be very hard to explain why they did their shopping trip with the Weasleys. In fact the school supplies were bought in different trips made by Hugo's grandparents or his uncles, they didn't want to be seen buying a whole new set of supplies either.

They spent the weekend at the Burrow mostly hanging around with their uncles. They had a lot of attention of course, in the new situation they were the only grandchildren of the family. Uncle Bill was more comfortable around them now and they heard him laugh and smile just as they could remember, it appeared that under the hard face he gave them the first time there was the same cool uncle that they had always known.

Uncle Fred and Uncle George brought a few things from the shop also but they were very careful of not letting their mother see those. Rose frowned and for a moment Hugo thought that she was going to give them away, she didn't but she didn't want any trick joke product either. Hugo smiled and didn't refuse his part, he packed a few trick wands, a pair of extendible ears and some other things too.

"Sticky Trainers? What do you need those for?" Rose said later that day as they were checking their trunks.

Hugo shrugged, "Dunno, will find out later" he said taking the trainers from his sister and putting them in the small old trunk that his grandparents got for him, then he grabbed a Spell Checking Quill from the bag that his uncles brought and put it in there too.

Rose snorted, "Mum wouldn't like you messing around, you know that. Leave that folly to James." when she said that her face sobered. Rose had been very touchy with James topic, even after all their arguments she really missed James as much as the rest of their cousins and now it was possible that they would never see them again. Hugo was really affected about that too but still he had been trying to cheer her up.

"I won't do anything like that. I just want to check these out, these are the first versions of many of their products. Uncle George doesn't even make some of these anymore"

Rose didn't say anything more, she walked to the bed and she lay there, just staring at the ceiling. She had already finished packing so she didn't had anything more to do. As well as his sister Hugo was a little uncomfortable with his grandparents getting all this stuff, it appeared as if they were struggling more with money right now than in the future but they didn't had their parents around to pay for their things. They even bought some clothes for them considering that Hugo's father could recognize him walking around with his shirts.

"Do you think that they'll find out?" said Hugo thinking on the day that was awaiting them at Hogwarts.

"No," said Rose, "not if we are careful"

"Oh"

Rose frowned, "You shouldn't be thinking about doing anything Hugo. I know it will be hard seeing them and not talking to them but we agreed to this, Dumbledore will do his part with the deluminator, we don't need to do anything"

"Yeah I know" Hugo answered unconvincingly.

They had a big dinner that day, their grandmother prepared as much food on the table as on Rose's birthday. She was emotional and said that she would really miss them, of course she stormed them with tons of recommendations. They hugged her tightly and promised to take care of themselves.

After giving their goodbyes to their uncles and Aunt Fleur they went to bed promising to write often.

In the morning Professor McGonagall came to pick them, they were not supposed to be seen with any Weasley after all and a floo connection to Hogwarts from the Burrow could be suspicious on the Ministry. The old witch caught their attention immediately, in the future she was the headmistress and Hugo couldn't remember her looking so young, or as young as an old witch could be.

McGonagall smiled at them and assured that she was going to be looking after them.

"All right, now let me work a bit on your appearance. It won't hurt and you would have to keep visiting me each day to reinforce the spell"

Rose and Hugo nodded and the witch started moving her wand around them, Hugo only felt little tickles on his face but nothing more.

"I think that would be enough" McGonagall said and not far away their grandfather nodded summoning a small mirror from a stand in the living room.

As soon as they looked at themselves Rose gasped, she had straight hair now and it was totally black, her eyes were black too and the freckles were gone. Hugo's hair was just as black but not as straight as Rose's, he noticed that his nose was a bit different and his eyes were dark brown. He turned to his sister incredulously, paying attention he could still notice Rose there but anyone giving just a quick glimpse would not see any association with their mother. Something similar happened with Hugo, their features were modified a bit but it was enough to make them look very different.

"I can't do much with these simple spells, more complex changes of appearance require the use of potions and we don't have enough ingredients to be preparing those daily"

"I think it will be enough Minerva" said Hugo's grandfather.

"Wallace, that will be the last name that we will use for you. You can keep the first names to avoid confusions. Professor Dumbledore is already working in keeping the records altered. No one should know that you are here unless they know what they're looking for in those records." Professor McGonagall said and they nodded.

Hugo Wallace, that would take some time to get used to.

A few more hugs later they left the Burrow and apparated to Hogsmeade with another unpleasant sensation.

"You can trust me with anything of course, my office is always opened. I will expect you every morning before breakfast, the spells should last for two or three days but I'll reinforce them daily to avoid accidents. I will be teaching you to do it yourselves." McGonagall said, "The official version is that you are home schooled so levelling you up for classes should be a fitting excuse for these meetings"

Hugo and Rose nodded.

"I know that you have doubts in this but I'll be looking after you. I care about your parents and even in the present circumstances is nice meeting you." the old witch added giving Hugo some kind of calm. They smiled at her but that smile faded with her next comment, "However that doesn't mean that I approve in any way what you did, I must say I am disappointed. Hope you change my opinion on your judgement." she said levitating their trunks as they walked towards the main gates, they nodded lowering their heads.

All the way to the castle they received stares from the people around but nothing major, just a few curious looks about the unknown kids that Professor McGonagall was walking through the grounds. It was not hard to guess that they were new kids, specially with the trunks floating and all that.

Hugo was really nervous now, he was moving his eyes to every boy and girl in there thinking that any moment now he was going to see his father or his mother. The full weight of what were they doing and where they were hit him once they crossed the main doors.

The thing that Hugo wanted most in the world was to rush around the castle looking for them, he wanted to see them and talk freely for hours. Although he made a promise and he didn't knew how things were going to turn out. He was afraid of not being strong enough to stick to the plan and putting him and Rose in trouble.

The boy turned to his side, the black haired Rose was moving her eyes enthusiastically but he couldn't understand her, for him everything looked the same. His sister didn't think so and kept pointing to small details that seemed older than she remembered, she kept whispering that this or that was probably reconstructed after the battle.

Next to the doors that led to the Great Hall a couple of students were standing up, they were waiting for them.

"Mr Ferguson," Professor McGonagall said addressing one of them, "This is Hugo Wallace, could you please escort him as we discussed?"

"Yes Professor"

The professor turned to look at Hugo as if he was any normal student, "Mr Ferguson is Head Boy this year, he will led you to your chambers so you can put your belongings in order. If you hurry up you could still catch the Care of Magical Creatures class"

Hugo nodded and followed the lad towards the first flight of stairs. He turned back and saw a weird smile from his sister, the professor was already talking to the other student left behind.

"So you were home schooled?" the Ferguson guy asked after a while.

"Err... yeah!" Hugo answered promptly as a Hufflepuff boy passed running not far away, the boy was probably late for a class since Hugo noticed that he had a book on his hands and a panicked face.

"Hope you do well, some subjects here are quite demanding"

Hugo nodded quickly, "I hope"

The less he talked the better, he didn't know who could be a friend of his parents and try to introduce him to them. He better be as quiet as possible and very careful.

Sooner than expected Hugo was facing the fat lady portrait, "_Dentes Leonis_" the lad said and the portrait swung open, "That's the password now, you better remember it"

It was not easy to stand in the Gryffindor common room again and act as if he didn't knew it, Ferguson was even expecting some questions from him so he decided to get a look around and act fascinated. The red tapestries and the fireplace were mostly the same but a few things changed here and there, mostly decoration on the desks.

Once he left his trunk next to the new empty bed at the fourth years' chambers Ferguson walked him all the way back to the school grounds, to the very border of the forest. There a group of people were already gathering around a huge man, Hugo smiled.

"Professor?"

"Emm? Wha' is it?" the voice of Hagrid resonated as he moved his big head between Ferguson and Hugo, "Oh, i's him then?"

"Yes, Hugo Wallace, the new boy"

"Tha's fine, yer can take a place with yer classmates. We're seein' nifflers." Hagrid said and Hugo walked shyly to the back of the group of fourth year Gryffindors as Ferguson returned to the castle.

Hugo quickly grabbed an eye with a girl with light dark skin but when she saw him the girl looked a away with a snort.

"Don't worry, that's Romilda, she does that with most of us." said a brown haired boy next to Hugo, "I'm Andrew by the way, Andrew Kirke" he finished extending his hand to Hugo.

The boy smiled and greeted him, "Hugo We-allace"

"So I heard, so home schooled or transfer?"

"Home schooled" Hugo was sticking to his story.

"Nice, we didn't know what was going on last week when that new bed appeared. Hope you like it in here, I reckon it gets complicated at times but some classes are fine really"

Hugo smiled and nodded, he didn't know what else to do. Eventually he was going to have to talk to someone but as his grandparents said he had to be extremely careful; his parents, Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny were in Gryffindor too after all. At least they were in different years.

After a while the boy got lost in the class, he didn't talk as much as in his old class but Hagrid was already the teacher here so not much changed. They actually weren't that far in the class from where he had left, he could still remember his last class with Hagrid in the future, it had been just before the call to the headmistress office. Everything changed after that call.

He paled, he had forgotten that he was on Care of Magical Creatures class when he was summoned to be given the news.

Hugo tried to let that behind and focused on the current class now.

At lunch he sat with Andrew Kirke at the Gryffindor table but they didn't talk much. Rose was with the Ravenclaws not far away, Hugo noticed how lonely she was. Most of the Weasleys had ended up on Gryffindor but at least in the future she had company in Ravenclaw.

Hugo remembered a couple of days ago when they told their uncles that Rose was in Ravenclaw at which they were taken aback, they couldn't believe that there was a Weasley who was not in Gryffindor. Uncle Bill had been pretty surprised when they told him that Rose was not the only one, his daughter and first Weasley grand-kid, Victoire, was also a Ravenclaw.

The now black haired boy continued eating but a moment later he caught his sister staring at the other side of the Gryffindor table with surprised eyes. Hugo didn't know what or who was she looking at since from where he was he couldn't distinguish the faces but then he heard her. She was far away so he couldn't get what she was talking about but that was definitely Aunt Ginny's voice.

Against what he had been told he tried desperately to get a look at her but all what he got was a long red mane, she was sitting next to a dark skinned boy but Hugo wasn't able to see anything more. She was very short.

"What?" Andrew asked following Hugo's eyes, "Oh, that's Ginny Weasley. Quite a stunner isn't she? Do you know her? It doesn't really matter actually, I heard she was going out with this Dean guy."

Hugo turned to him blushing and shaking his hands, "No, I'm not!... I mean... it's not that. I just thought that I saw her somewhere before, but I don't, not really." he mumbled.

Andrew raised an eyebrow at him and continued with his meal.

Then it happened. Hugo sighed, he moved his eyes away from the boy and without knowing it he ended up looking at the main doors. They were there, his parents and Uncle Harry were walking into the Hall arguing about something. For Hugo it seemed like time stopped, his heart was racing and his jaw dropped open, he really had to fight back the need to walk to them just to hear his father's voice again.

With his now dark eyes he turned to the Ravenclaw table and there he saw Rose equally stunned, she had seen them too.

They were smaller of course but they were them in their younger bodies. Uncle Harry looked scrawnier and it was impressive how much looks he caught. Close to him he heard Romilda sighing at his uncle with puppy eyes and he felt pretty weird about it.

Hugo found himself hoping that the spells really worked because his mother looked almost exactly as Rose, they always looked alike but now that they were both of the same age Hugo could understand the impression his sister left on Uncle Bill and his grandfather when they first saw them.

His father was there too, arguing carelessly about something, he was calmed and cheerful as if nothing could ever happen to him. It was surreal and right then Hugo didn't care about all the problems that they had caused travelling back, in that moment it was really worth it.

"You do know Harry Potter, don't you?" Andrew asked.

"Er... yeah, not in person of course but I have-"

"Do you want to? He is in our same house, I had barely talked to him but I have a friend at the Quidditch team who can-"

"NO!" Hugo almost yelled and when he saw the surprise on the boy he tried to correct himself, "I mean, I don't think it would be a good idea, I wouldn't know what to say"

Andrew was looking at him as if he was some kind of weird bug, "If you say so" he moved to the other side and started talking to Martin, another fellow fourth year.

Lunch was very uneasy for Hugo since he kept throwing nervous looks to the other side of the table, he had to be subtle though because he didn't want Andrew to start asking questions about him. Even when Andrew talked again and they discussed Quidditch Hugo's thoughts were a few seats away.

The trio soon left and Hugo wished that he had raised from his seat earlier. He continued his day with the hope that he might see them later, maybe at the common room he could be closer to them without being noticed.

Charms was nice but once Hugo got into Defence Against Dark Arts he completely changed his opinion about Al's namesake. Severus Snape was a horrible person and he couldn't understand how everyone always talked so nice about him or why Al was named after him.

Hugo wasn't sure if it was because of being the new guy or because the black haired man knew who he was but he thought that he got the worse of the class. It appeared as if Professor Snape had an unstoppable desire of making his class miserable, specially to him.

At one point Andrew asked Hugo about the movements of Hex-deflection and answering was probably his worst mistake of the day.

"Mr Wallace if my class is so uninteresting that you have to be discussing other matters I might be needing to put you on extra work. Five points from Gryffindor"

Andrew's mouth fell open, "I was just answering a-" Hugo started perplexed.

"You weren't asked to answer anything. Five more points from Gryffindor. Are you planning on losing more points today Mr Wallace?" the teacher insisted, his greasy hair had a nasty look from where Hugo was sitting.

The now black haired boy was terrified, he never got that sort of attention in class, he was a good student and he always got good grades. "N-No sir"

"Fine then I believe an essay on Erklings and where to find them would help you regain your interest in this subject, 30 inches"

Hugo looked confused at his partners, everyone else seemed also shocked of the sudden attention that Hugo received. "Yes sir" he answered not wanting to get himself into trouble.

He spent the rest of the class not even wanting to raise his eyes from the book.

Once outside Andrew and Martin surrounded him, "What's up with Snape? I mean he has always been a git but what does he got against you?" said Andrew.

"I-I- don't know" said Hugo honestly.

"Haven't you seen him before? Did you even looked at him in a ugly way?" Martin asked. Hugo shook his head

Hugo spent the whole afternoon in the library, Andrew and Martin were surprised of Hugo wanting to finish that right away since they didn't had Defence Against Dark Arts until Wednesday but they let it go. It had been a tough choice between the library or the common room but at the end he decided that the common room would be crowded with people he didn't know, besides if he was lucky he could see his mother in the library from far away.

On the bad side Hugo's mother was not there that day when he got to the library but fortunately he found Rose looking at something about Transfiguration. They talked about their days and Rose couldn't believe what Hugo told her about Snape, even so she promised to be careful the next day when she was going to have her first class with him.

They talked a bit more even after Hugo finished his essay but they did it mostly in whispers since the main topic was seeing their parents at lunch. They got some kind of attention but that was expected since they were the new students. Hugo wished that he could stay talking until late with his sister like he had done it in the Burrow but it was already time to go.

Dinner was uneventful and Hugo continued throwing looks across the table. This was going to be harder than he thought, he had been wanting to get close to them the whole time and it was only the first day. He didn't know how that would change later, maybe he could get used to see them from the distance.

As everybody walked back to their beds Hugo reached his sister to say goodbye, they exchanged a couple of words and when Hugo turned around he found that neither his parents or Andrew were at the Great Hall anymore.

He tried to follow them but then he remembered that he had left his essay at the table when he stood up to talk to Rose and he had to go back, by the time he reached the fat lady the stairs were empty and surely everyone from Gryffindor was already inside.

The boy tried to remember the password but when he did he wasn't able to say it, the portrait swung open and something hit him hard to the floor.

Hugo was sitting on the floor and shaking his head trying to understand what happened when he heard a voice that froze him.

"Hey watch it!"

His now dark eyes opened widely and he raised his head quickly to look at his father, he had stumbled too but he remained standing. His hair was bright red and he was very tall, looking at him from such a short distance made him notice all the similarities he had with him. The appearance spells really needed to work.

"Well you shouldn't be walking out of the common room without looking where you're going" Hugo's jaw dropped as his mother came then, "Sorry, is this yours?" she said with a smile as she lifted the essay from the floor.

Hugo couldn't find his words so he just nodded looking really pale.

"Well he wasn't looking either" Hugo's father complained.

The bushy haired girl didn't seem to hear him, "You're the new boy, saw your sister earlier. She's your sister, right?" Hugo nodded again.

"Does he talk?"

Hugo's mother shot a nasty glare to the redhead and then tried to help Hugo to his feet, "What's your name?"

After a long effort the boy was able to answer blushing, "Hu-Hugo Weeallace"

His mother raised an eyebrow and stared at him for some time, Hugo found himself wishing that she couldn't find out. Eventually the girl smiled, "Professor McGonagall mentioned your last name and year to the prefects, Hugo is a lovely name." she said and then turned to the redhead on his back, "Which reminds me, we are late, we had to start our prefect patrols ten minutes ago. Hurry up Ron!"

"Lets go then"

Hugo's mother turned one last time to him already walking away, "I'm Hermione by the way and this is Ron, we're sixth year prefects so you come to us if you have a problem. Do you know the password?" she asked since the portrait had closed already.

"Dentes Leonis" Hugo said and the portrait swung again with the fat lady complaining about people opening and closing all the time. The bushy haired girl smiled and walked away.

"See ya!" Hugo's father said walking after her.

Hugo was shocked, days ago he couldn't believe that he would hear his father again and now he saw both of his parents as if tragedy had never hit them. He grinned happily as he hadn't in a long time.

"Are you coming or not?" asked the fat lady.

Hugo jumped on his place, "Yes, Yes!" and he hurried through the portrait hole.


	5. The Cursed Trip

**HARRY**

The trip to Hogsmeade was rough, Harry and his friends had to press their scarves tight against their faces to get some kind of protection from the harsh weather. The other students were not faring much better either, everyone around had to bend double against the bitter wind all the way to town. Harry soon found himself thinking that staying in the warmth of Gryffindor's common room might have been a better option.

They walked to Zonko's Joke Shop with their cheeks beyond numbness, they were looking for shelter as well as joke stuff but those hopes vanished as soon as they saw the place completely boarded up.

"Argh hell! are you serious?!" Ron whined shivering a little, Hermione was so cold that she didn't even wig at him for the language.

Harry snorted blaming everything to their bad luck but then Ron pointed to Honeydukes which was mercifully opened, they headed there without thinking it twice. Once in front of the shop Ron hurried to the knob but before he could reach it the door slammed opened against him and he was almost knocked to the freezy floor.

"Watch it out! that's two times now!" Ron shouted with a frown as he stumbled backwards. At the door Harry distinguished the new kid emerging from the shop, if he remembered correctly the black haired boy went by the name of Hugo Wallace. His sister Rose came behind him, she was smiling and had her hands full of sweets but as soon as she saw them her smile faded.

"So-Sorry, I didn't meant to." Hugo said to Ron, the boy turned to look at his sister with a frightened look.

Rose Wallace pulled from her brother's sleeve and after apologizing one last time they left the place. For some reason Harry found that exchange pretty odd.

Harry didn't know what to make of them, the Wallace siblings had been at Hogwarts for about a week now and this was the first time that Harry saw them this close. He didn't know how the whole home school worked, he was already in his sixth year and this was the first time he ever heard of a home schooled student, Harry wondered if it was normal for them to be that isolated.

"There's something wrong with those two" Ron blurted.

"They are new here, they're just trying to adapt, that's all" said Hermione but even so Harry saw her looking weirdly as the two siblings walked away.

"Sure, now are we going in or what?" Ron asked annoyed.

Harry followed Ron and Hermione to the warm toffe-scented air of Honeydukes. Unfortunately they found Professor Slughorn in there and Harry was asked again to join those weird meetings he was having. Apparently he was not the only one refusing to go either, according to the old professor the Wallaces were very keen students but they also avoided the next meeting when Slughorn asked them to pass by. Harry wondered if they had a valid reason to do so or if they were just putting excuses out as he did.

It was pretty noticeable that Hermione found that queer too, he wondered what his friend was thinking of the new students. He didn't know why but he got the feeling that there was something familiar about them.

Minutes later Harry suggested going to the Three Broomsticks and they headed out with fresh stock of extra-large sugar quills in their pockets. Outside they had a pretty unpleasant encounter with Mundungus Fletcher.

"He was nicking Sirius's stuff!" Harry burst out as soon as they were inside the Three Broomsticks. Mundungus was supposedly a member of the Order but after Sirius death the bandy-legged man started picking things from Grimmauld Place. Harry was red in anger.

"I know, Harry, but please don't shout, people are staring. Go and sit down, I'll get you a drink." whispered Hermione.

Harry was still fuming when Hermione returned to their table a few minutes later holding three bottles of butterbeer. The bushy haired girl tried to calm Harry down but it was very hard, he didn't know how the Order allowed him to do those things. He was definitely going to talk to Dumbledore about it, they had to stop that.

They were not having fun at that trip, Harry couldn't stop thinking on Sirius and those silver goblets, he hated those either way. Meanwhile Hermione kept moving her eyes questioningly between Ron and the bar after she caught him looking at Rosemerta

"Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?" Hermione asked when they finished their drinks.

Harry and Ron nodded. As Harry reached for his cloak his thoughts strayed to Ginny, she was not around and that was surely because she was with Dean at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, the place for happy couples. Harry scowled at the image.

They were about to follow Katie Bell and her friend out of the place when Ron snorted out loud, "Wonder if that new kid is waiting for me outside to hit me with the door"

Hermione frowned at him annoyed, "I don't see how is that possible since he is taking a drink with his sister right now"

At those words Harry turned his eyes around the place and indeed the Wallace siblings were at a distant table, they were alone and staring at them but as soon as Harry saw them they looked away. Apparently they had been there for a while, maybe even before them.

"Have they been staring at us the whole time?" Ron asked.

Hermione only grimaced but that was like nodding. Ron put his cloak on and turned to Harry, "They must be looking at you mate, they must've been hearing about you a lot before getting here" Harry rolled his eyes, he had to admit that it was probably that, he had got that a lot.

"I don't know Ron"

"What do you mean Hermione? They surely know about Harry since-" Ron answered.

"I mean that they are not looking at Harry, not only at him though. Look I know it's strange but I think I've caught them staring at us sometimes, on the prefect duties"

Ron raised an eyebrow snorting, "They know that we're his friends, they're just weird"

It seemed like Hermione was willing to answer but she let it go and they left the pub, Harry thought that she was considering Ron being right this time. The Wallaces felt weird because they didn't know them and they were new to the place, probably in a couple of weeks they would be blending with their classmates as everybody else.

They followed the High Street back to the castle, struggling with the sleet since the got out of the Three Broomsticks, the wind was so strong that at times Harry thought that it was shouting at them. Then they saw it.

Around the corner Harry saw something raising in the air, it was a person but the weather didn't allow them to see who it was. A scream came, a yell of pure anguish, Harry and his friends rushed around the corner looking up but the figure had fallen to the floor already. Harry rushed to take the sleet out of his glasses to get a better view and when he was a few feet away he halted in disbelief.

Two figures were over the snow, two girls, one holding the other. Harry recognized them as they rushed through the deserted landscape, Katie Bell's friend was holding Harry's team partner who was trashing desperately in the girl's hands, when the girl saw them she yelled, tears covered her eyes.

"I don't know what happened, we got to help her!" Katie's friend said to them.

"Stay there!" Harry shouted at the others over the howling wind, "I'm going to get help!"

Harry ran towards the school, he didn't knew what happened but he could guess that the figure he saw floating around the corner had been Katie. His heart was racing fast, he didn't know what could cause that chilling effect on her, all he could think of was the image of the girl trashing against the floor. If they had been just a few seconds sooner they could had tried to catch her, he didn't know if she hurt herself on the way down to the floor.

The only thing that he was sure of was that Katie had been cursed.

Fortunately he crashed against Hagrid pretty soon and he brought him back to the place where Katie was still writhing and screaming on the ground; Ron, Hermione, and Katie's friend were all trying to quiet her.

"Get back!" shouted Hagrid, "Lemme see her!"

"Something's happened to her!" sobbed the Katie's friend, "I don't know what —"

In a swift movement Hagrid raised Katie from the floor and carried her back to the castle, sprinting as fast as he could. Harry thought he saw her arm at a weird angle, probably from the fall.

"It's Leanne, isn't it?" said Hermione then to Katie's friend and the girl nodded.

"Did it just happen all of a sudden, or — ?"

"It was when that package tore," sobbed Leanne, pointing at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glitter. Ron bent down, his hand out-stretched, but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back.

"Don't touch it!" Harry yelled but he was not the only one.

"Don't!" another voice shouted at the same time behind them. Harry turned and saw the Wallace siblings standing a few feet away staring with frightened eyes. Rose had been the one shouting.

"Did you saw it?" Hermione asked them. The boy, Hugo, shocked his head.

"We just got here" said Rose.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Why did you yell then?"

"I-I- don't know- I just..." Rose mumbled but she was interrupted.

"I have seen this before," said Harry still moving his green eyes between the Wallace and the brown package. An ornate opal necklace was visible out of the package, "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it." He looked up at Leanne, who had started to shake uncontrollably. "How did Katie get hold of this?"

"Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked all funny when she said it. ... Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!"

Leanne shook with renewed sobs. Hermione patted her shoulder gently.

"She didn't say who'd given it to her?"

"No... she wouldn't tell me... and I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to school, but she just wouldn't listen and-nd I-I tried to grab it... and — and —"

Leanne let out a wail of despair.

"We'd better get up to school," said Hermione, her arm still around Leanne. "We'll be able to find out how she is."

Harry hesitated for a moment, then pulled his scarf from around his face and, ignoring Ron's gasp, he carefully covered the necklace in it and picked it up.

"We'll need to show it to Madam Pomfrey," he said.

With one last suspicious look at the Wallaces Hermione took Leanne up the road and everyone else followed them, the Wallaces from a very long distance and with their eyes fixed on the ground. Harry was thinking furiously but not about them, there was something much more important at the moment. They had just entered the grounds when he spoke, unable to keep his thoughts to himself any longer.

"Malfoy knows about it, the necklace. It was in a case at Borgin and Burkes four years ago, I saw him looking at it while I was hiding from him and his dad. This is what he was buying that day when we followed him! He remembered it and he went back for it!"

"I — I dunno, Harry," said Ron hesitantly. "Loads of people go to Borgin and Burkes... and didn't that girl say Katie got it in the girls' bathroom?"

"She said she came back from the bathroom with it, she didn't necessarily get it in the bathroom itself—"

"McGonagall!" said Ron warningly.

Harry looked up. Sure enough, Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet them.

"Hagrid says you four saw what happened to Katie Bell — upstairs to my office at once, please!..." then she stopped widening their eyes, she was looking behind Harry, "Mr and Miss Wallace, were you there too?"

"Yeah but we didn't, we just-" Hugo started but his sister stopped him.

"Yes but we didn't saw much professor" Rose continued.

McGonagall looked at them studiously, like trying to find out something, "Doesn't matter, I want all of you at my office and- What's that you're holding, Potter?"

"It's the thing she touched," said Harry.

"Good lord," said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Harry, "No, no, Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily, as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft, "Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf!"

At McGonagall's office Leanne explained everything to the old witch, it was basically the same story that she had already told them. After that Harry approached her, wanting to share his theory with her but the Wallaces were still there looking scared. Professor McGonagall noticed it and asked the siblings to wait outside.

Harry, Ron and Hermione argued in front of the Professor as soon as they were alone, Harry really believed that it was Malfoy the one behind the necklace, it couldn't be anybody else. However he got a lot of resistance to the idea, specially from Professor McGonagall who even when he seemed to be considering his words ended up putting them aside. Apparently Malfoy had spent the day in Hogwarts which put him pretty far from Katie, Harry didn't know how to explain that but some part of him still was sure that Malfoy was the culprit.

Professor McGonagall dismissed them and to their surprise she asked to question the Wallace siblings. It was pretty weird, they had seen the less of it and the professor knew that, they had told her. Harry didn't know what the old witch thought that they could tell her but it was surely not much.

Hermione was uneasy too, she wondered about Rose shouting at Ron about the package but Ron said to let it go, it was probably nothing. Besides it was not hard to imagine that the package could be dangerous with a girl shaking desperately next to it.

On the other hand Harry wanted to stop talking about them, all he wanted then was his friends support in the whole Malfoy thing. He was sure that Draco was the one who put the necklace there in some way and they didn't seem to believe him, specially Hermione.

Back at the common room no one seemed to know what had just happened but even there Harry didn't let it go, it had been a lousy plan since many things could have gone wrong with the necklace thing but that only supported Harry's theory. Malfoy was sloppy and not a deep thinker at all, Hermione snorted and took Ron out on prefect duties.

The next day Katie was transferred to St Mungo's, the curse was very complicated and they needed to check her, fortunately the fall didn't had any major problems besides a broken bone which was already fixed. The school was tense, they couldn't believe that something like that had happened on a Hogsmeade trip.

The whole day Harry tried to insist talking about Malfoy but every time that Hermione noticed him going that way she changed the subject. Harry was very frustrated by that but he didn't change his mind. He was determined to uncovered the Slytherin as soon as possible.

In the evening, when Ron and Hermione were out patrolling he went back to bed. The Gryffindor common room was packed with people but most of them were serious, specially Katie's friends. The image of the girl trashing on the snowy floor haunted Harry. No one was around at the dormitories, it felt unreal thinking about the day before when Ron had been floating by his ankle on the bed.

Harry walked to his trunk with a clear idea in mind but he got something completely different from what he was looking for, he found something that he couldn't explain.


	6. The Fake Wallaces

**HARRY**

For a moment Harry thought about staying on bed until Ron returned, surely his friend could explain what he was seeing now, however it would take a while for the redhead to get back from his prefect duties and Harry wasn't willing to wait that long.

In a hurry he took his cloak from the trunk and gave a last glimpse to the piece of paper in his hands, just to make sure he had seen it correctly. Moments before he had been skimming the Marauders' Map with the hope of finding Malfoy and maybe proof that Katie's accident was his doing. Malfoy was nowhere to be seen though, it appeared as if he had vanished from the school, his name was probably lost in the crowd of students. There was something that caught his attention though, a last name.

Harry moved his eyes to the point in the map where the library was, the words displayed there seemed to be mocking him. Weasley, that was what the map said and it never lied. Harry was quite confused since the words were not attached to Ron or Ginny but to two other names that he couldn't remember hearing in Hogwarts until recently.

"It doesn't make any sense" said Harry to himself as he stared at the moving tags that were holding the names of Hugo Weasley and Rose Weasley.

The new students were Wallace, were those dots pointing at them? It couldn't be, the map had never failed like that. Also Ron never mentioned any other Weasley being in Hogwarts, he would surely know if that was the case.

Harry put the map aside for a moment and he made his decision, he threw the invisibility cloak over his shoulders and walked slowly out of the room, he didn't want to be disturbed on his way there. It wouldn't take more than an hour for everyone to be back at their common rooms and he needed answers before that.

The way down was quick and without major interruptions, he had the map under the cloak so he was able to walk through the less crowded staircases without crashing with anyone. It was not long until he was peeking inside the library, inside only a few students were left and most of them seemed to be standing up already. Without thinking about it his eyes travelled to a far table, Hugo and Rose Wallace were talking quietly over a couple of heavy books, just the two of them as he expected.

Harry was about to step inside when the siblings stood up and took care of their books, they walked calmly towards the main door not even noticing Harry when they passed right in front of him. He quickly looked at the map and with astonishment he swept his eyes back and forth between the dots in the paper and the Wallaces who were now walking away from him. The dots he was looking at belonged to them, in the map the names of Hugo and Rose Weasley were walking away from him.

Without knowing what other thing to do Harry followed them. A few steps away Hugo moved his eyes around and when he didn't saw anyone there he whispered to his sister.

"What if it was us?" he asked.

"It wasn't, it happened to her last time too you know that"

"Yes but maybe last time was not this bad, you looked at her Rose" Hugo said really worried and somehow Harry knew that they were talking about Katie Bell.

"McGonagall relaxed a bit after we told her that she was going to be all right," Rose answered, "You shouldn't worry"

Hugo didn't say anything for a while. Behind them Harry was stunned, he couldn't believe that they had calmed McGonagall about this, did they knew some magic that could cure Katie that the old witch ignored? He didn't think so.

"Do you think they suspect something? I mean you saw them looking at us yesterday"

"Well we weren't being very subtle" Rose said.

"It's hard, not to"

Rose stopped suddenly and Harry almost crashed against them, he was pretty close to them because their whispers were not very loud. The black haired girl turned her head around, she was suspecting something and for a moment Harry thought that she had spotted him but then she moved back to her brother with a serious look, "I know it's hard, most of the time I can't stop myself either but we got to do it. We have to be more careful"

Hugo nodded and they both resumed the walk.

"I don't think that we are in much trouble though, not for now at least," continued Rose, "Mum is looking at us suspiciously but there's no way she can possibly know. Dad and Uncle Harry are clueless"

The mention of his name surprised Harry and since he was expecting to continue forward - Gryffindor tower was in that way - he ended up crashing against the two siblings when they tried to turned left. The three of them ended up in the floor with Harry's cloak revealing him partially.

"Aaah!"

"What tha-"

Harry couldn't see a thing since his glasses fell to the floor. He moved his eyes around and then he heard Hugo's voice, "Woaw! is that a leg?"

He had been caught. Suddenly Harry was hitting himself mentally, so many times under the cloak and he happened to make a mistake now? They were going to find out and what was he going to say?

"I-I- don't- " Rose said, they must had noticed the cloak because the next thing that Harry knew was that the girl was lifting the fabric as Harry rubbed his head. Rose gasped when Harry's face was uncovered.

"Uncle Harry!?"

"Hugo!" Rose yelled at her brother.

"Oh yeah!... Sorry... I..."

Harry heard a sigh from Rose who was now shaking the dust out of her legs, then she picked something from the floor and touched it lightly with her wand. "_Reparo_" the girl said softly, "Here"

She handed him his glasses and as soon as Harry put them on he felt less lost, "Thanks, I-I... I'm sorry... I was not looking where I was going," he started then picked the cloak from the floor and tried to fold it in a way that it couldn't be noticed by someone passing by, fortunately the three of them were alone at the hallway, "Err... this... this is..."

"An invisibility cloak, we know" said Hugo

"Em, yeah"

They stared uncomfortably at each other until Harry broke the silence, "You called me _Uncle Harry_" he said to Hugo quite confused.

"No I didn't" the boy answered at once with a scared look on his dark eyes, his sister was glaring at him.

"Yes you did, I heard you, you were talking about Katie and- wait. Your last name, it's We-Weasley, isn't it?" he asked.

"NO!" Rose yelled hastily, "We are Wallace, Hugo and Rose Wallace. Our father was a wizard from Scotland but we live in Hampshire, our Mum is a Muggleborn and..."

"Rose...?" Hugo said shaking her sleeve.

"What?"

Hugo didn't answer, he only pointed to a spot not far away on the floor, when the girl followed him she gasped covering her mouth with both hands. Both of them were pale. Harry then turned too and saw that they were looking at a piece of paper on the floor wide opened, the Marauder's Map, it was still showing dots with names moving around the school. His eyes opened wide and he hurried to pick it up.

After a moment Harry realized that somehow they recognized the map which didn't make any sense, "Who are you? You- know what this is?"

Both siblings nodded pretty scared.

"I-It's- the Ma-Marauder's Map"

Harry was surprised and troubled, he couldn't understand one thing of what was going on. How could they know what the map was? there was no other like it. He tried to leave that behind for a moment, the important part was that the paper didn't show them as Wallace and he needed to know why.

"Well then, you are Weasleys." Harry insisted more sure of himself, the fake Wallaces nodded again in defeat. "Mind to explain?" he asked looking at them with different eyes, the first thing he realized was that they weren't redheads which he thought was like a required feature for all Weasleys, Ron said that practically all of his family were red haired, even distant cousins.

Rose shook her head violently, "We can't"

"You need to tell me, what are you doing here? who are you? why are you hiding like this?" They didn't seem like Death Eaters but Harry wasn't sure why they were hiding otherwise.

The siblings turned to each other quite worried, "Sorry, we can't say it. It's for the best"

Harry frowned letting out a snort. Last year he was told that he couldn't know something, that it was for his best not knowing, he hated it and it only ended up with Sirius dying. The memory of his dead godfather made him gloomy for a bit but he wasn't going to back out now, he was going to find out what was happening one way or another. "You better tell me what's all of this about, I'll find out either way"

When they didn't answer Harry frowned and started walking away, "Fine, I'll ask Ron about this. He's a Weasley, he ought to know what's going on with you two"

"NOO!" Rose's yells reached him as the girl rushed and pulled from his arm, stopping him from continuing his way, "You can't tell...him ! not him, please"

Hugo joined following them, "R-Ron doesn't have to know, neither does Mu- He-Hermione." the boy corrected himself.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Hermione? What does she have to do with any of this?" he asked but he didn't got an answer, "Look, they're my friends and Ron's a Weasley." he insisted.

"Please don't, please you can't, it's important" Rose looked desperate, "Crucial actually, Professor Dumbledore asked us. You weren't supposed to find out, nobody was, the charms were working and we were not... I mean we thought that... please promise that you won't tell" by the way she talked the black haired girl kind of reminded him of Hermione.

"Dumbledore? I-I don't get it... what does it matter that Ron knows that there are Weasleys in here- it's not like... I..."

"It's for the war, if Voldemort finds out..." said Hugo gaining a deathly glare from his sister.

Harry was dumbfounded, the war? what did the two of them had to do with the war? and why were they discussing it with Dumbledore? He also didn't miss that the boy used _his_ name without hesitating.

"The war?"

Rose took a deep breath, "Look, we can explain but with Professor Dumbledore"

"He is not here, not until Monday"

"You have to understand! We can't tell you without him!"

Harry frowned, it was Dumbledore again. The headmaster had promised that he wasn't going to keep things from him, not after the bloody prophecy. "I don't want to wait, if you don't tell me right now I'll go get Ron and Hermione and we will find what is going on one way or the other. We'll ask McGonagall or Ron's father or whoever we need to."

"He already knows that we're here" said Hugo.

"Who? Mr Weasley?" Hugo nodded at his question.

Silence took over them and after thinking about it Harry knew that there was no way that he could keep something like this from Ron and Hermione, not unless there was a pretty strong reason and even in that case he wasn't so sure of it, he didn't like lies. He sighed, "I'm going to talk to them, so either you explain this to me or I'll be going"

Hugo and Rose exchanged troubled looks, "We don't have any other option" said the boy.

The girl sighed, "Can't we have at least until tomorrow? It's almost curfew" she said but she must have realized that Harry was not backing out, "All right, we need to find Professor McGonagall"

It was indeed very late but Harry agreed to go to Professor McGonagall if the old witch was going to give him answers. They walked there in complete silence with a few weird looks thrown from prefects, they seemed to find suspicious the unusual trio walking alone in the hallways so close to curfew. Hugo and Rose jumped a little every time a new prefect or student came out of a corner, maybe thinking that it could be Ron or Hermione.

Minutes later they were all standing in front of Professor McGonagall's desk, the teacher had the sternest look that Harry had ever seen in her. Before her the Marauder's Map was wide opened and she was giving it a studious check, Harry was surprised the moment the fake Wallaces mentioned it, he was now afraid that McGonagall was going to take the map from him. Maybe he didn't thought this through.

"Well this explains a lot" the old witch said after a while raising her sight from the paper, she moved her eyes from Rose and Hugo and then to Harry who was on the other side of the desk, "We should had foreseen this"

"Sorry, we forgot that he had it" said Rose, the girl and her brother were lowering their eyes as being reprimanded. They were acting as if they had done something wrong. Harry was still not sure how they knew about the map in the first place.

"Eh... professor?" Harry asked, the old witch turned to him and gave a slight nod, "They didn't do anything, it was me who crashed with them. It's just that I needed to know what's going on, is this about Ron? is everybody all right?" Harry asked feeling nervous, for the first time since he saw those names back at the Gryffindor tower he thought that something could be happening to the Weasleys and that scared him.

The woman released a long sigh, "This might have something to do with Mr Weasley yes, still I believe we can handle it if we are careful. As far as I know Molly, Arthur and the rest of the Weasleys are doing fine. You don't have to worry about that"

Harry nodded seriously.

Professor McGonagall fixed her green eyes on him, like deciding something. "All of this would had been easier if you had only waited for Professor Dumbledore to return. I am now afraid that if let you go without an explanation you will go and show this map to Miss Granger and Mr Weasley, I don't think it's wise to take it from you either, that could be noticed."

Somehow Harry knew that the best thing to do was to remain quiet.

"Sit down, all of you, we'll need to talk with the truth. At least part of it." the teacher said sitting behind her desk too, she put the map aside for a moment and Harry was again hopeful that he could get it back. He didn't know why though, the map seemed like something Professor McGonagall wouldn't want on one of her students' hands.

The witch conjured a couple of extra chairs out of thin air and Rose and Hugo sat at Harry's side looking frightened.

"Before we start I want you Mr Potter to promise me something. May I have your word that what will be said here is not going to reach Mr Weasley's and Miss Granger's ears? This is a delicate topic, a knowledge that could alter the outcome of the war itself"

Harry was shocked, he still couldn't see the connection between Rose, Hugo and the war. "I-I-" he mumbled nervously.

"I won't go on if I don't have your word here," the woman continued moving her square glasses a little, "I believe that your word means something of course. No matter how close your friends are to you this should not reach them. It shouldn't have reached your either but I hope that Professor Dumbledore will know how to minimize the damage when he arrives."

Suddenly it was obvious that the whole thing was bigger than what Harry thought in the first place. There was something about these new Weasleys that made the whole thing of him knowing them a complicated topic. Harry wondered what to answer, he was definitely not going to lie to McGonagall but how could he keep something from Hermione and Ron? specially when it seemed to be so important and even related to Ron.

"Would I be able to tell them when Professor Dumbledore arrives? could he be ok with it?"

Rose and Hugo turned to the professor with a lot of attention, "I'm afraid not. I don't see how he could approve it." Professor McGonagall said and paused briefly, "I need your word here Mr Potter, you can stay and hear the story or you can take this... peculiar map of yours and go back to your bed."

It was a difficult position, somehow he knew what the professor meant, if he stepped out of that room he would not know what was going on. The three of them could pass a lot of time following Hugo and Rose or even pass hours at the library and they wouldn't discover anything, this was not something hidden in a book, this was something else. It was clear for him that the teacher preferred him knowing than Ron and Hermione suspecting that there was something off happening. Why them? What did Hermione had to do with it if it was Weasley business?

Harry sighed and nodded, "If it is important I won't say a thing, not until it's safe, I promise... but if Dumbledore says that I can-"

McGonagall raised a hand making it known that his answer was enough for her. "Well lets get this over with, I don't want Gryffindor students wandering so late after curfew" she started and moved her stern eyes to Rose, "Miss Weasley have you been able to master your charms?"

"Em... not yet, I think I can handle the hair but I still need a little practice on everything else"

The teacher nodded, "Mr Potter the first thing you need to know is that these are not Miss Weasley's and Mr Weasley's real appearances. I'll need to change that for a moment for you to understand"

Slowly the old witch took out her wand and pointed it at Rose and Hugo, she waved it in weird movements and when she was over Harry was left stunned. Rose and Hugo changed, their hairs turned Weasley red and few freckles spread across their cheeks, Rose's straight hair expanded to a big bushy mane. That was not all of it, their faces had changed too and after a quick second Harry knew why their new looks were so familiar to him.

"R-Ron? He-erminoe?" he asked dumbfounded.

"Mr Weasley and Miss Weasley are from the future," the witch continued taking Harry by surprise, "They came here with the help of an improved time turner, one that can travel back many years, and they did it in a situation that I don't want to discuss right now." she stared at them and weirdly they lowered their eyes to the floor.

Harry was shocked, he had only known one time turner but the idea of one going years back into the past seemed incredible and pretty dangerous. He wanted to say that it was impossible but he was not Hermione, he didn't know what was possible and what was not with these things.

"The reason we need for hiding their appearances and for being so secretive is that they are from twenty six years into the future, their sole presence here can affect the outcome of the war in an adverse way."

The thoughts racing on Harry's head were a mess but still there was only one question that popped on his head, "They can affect the war? We-we won?" he asked turning at them puzzled.

Professor McGonagall nodded, "According to them the future is quite a good one, we need to alter as little as possible to keep that future."

"We made it? we really...? is he... gone?"

Hugo nodded, "You killed him, everybody knows about it... in the future"

Harry was shocked, yesterday he doubted that he could live that long and now he found out that he killed Voldemort. He couldn't believe it, he just didn't know he was able to do something like that. Dumbledore was much more capable of defeating Tom than he ever would be.

"Can you see it now Mr Potter? This is a difficult situation, any little change can ruin everything. I don't want to scare you but it is possible that Professor Dumbledore will even think about erasing your memories and I am afraid that I would agree with him. None of you knowing will be for the best"

His eyes sprung open. He didn't want his memories removed but he was still struggling to assimilate the old witch's words, he couldn't think on a way to argue against it. He killed Voldemort, what if he did something different this time? what if things changed and he wins now? He didn't want that. He wondered, if the headmaster was going to suggest to _obliviate_ him, what was he going to say or do then?

"That's why I trust you will keep the promise you just made, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger knowing would compromise many things here"

"Knowing? knowing what? they wouldn't want the future changed either... I-I ... I just don-t see how they knowing about Hugo and Rose is more dangerous than me-" he said turning to the Weasleys and his expression turned blank, he couldn't stop staring at them.

"That's why we hide their appearances, I hope you see it now, Mr Weasley and Miss Weasley here are their children. Ronald and Hermione Weasley are their parents in the future"

Harry's jaw dropped opened. He couldn't think clearly, they definitely looked like them but Ron and Hermione together was something that came out of nowhere. They had been fighting about the most insignificant things for years, was that really fighting? He was very confused.

"You can't say anything Uncle Harry, please" said Rose and Harry jumped in his place at the way she had called him. He had heard that before from them but now they were not trying to hide it. "If Mum and Dad know they might come together sooner! that will complicate things! it will change them and- you heard it... it would be disastrous if he- Voldermort, if he wins and..."

It was official he hadn't been so confused in his life before and that was saying something, there were so many things said and all at once. He was _Uncle Harry_, these Weasleys knew him, cared about him and probably his future self cared about them too. He didn't had anything, he didn't know how to react.

"It would have been better not to have them here but Hogwarts had another plan," continued the professor, "their beds appeared and records were changed. We had to put them here to avoid suspicions, you can imagine that if something is worse that accidentally changing the future that is the Death Eaters finding about them. We would be entering in unexpected territory if it was known that they lost last time..."

He could see that, they couldn't allow Voldemort discovering them, even Rose and Hugo would be in danger. What would Hermione and Ron say if they knew they had children around them and that they were going through such a difficult moment? Harry felt sorry for them and guilty for yelling before, it must have been pretty tough to hide themselves like that even from their loved ones.

"While Professor Dumbledore finds a way to return them to their own time we must keep this facade, I hope you understand that."

Harry nodded weakly, looking at the Weasleys. Rose talked softly, "Mum and Dad are not supposed to be together until the end of next school year. You see Uncle Harry? if they found about us that could change... we can't let that happen"

After a brief pause he nodded again, if he had known this was so hard he would have preferred not knowing at all. It was a fact that he couldn't tell this to Ron or Hermione, he wouldn't risk it, however that didn't meant that he was going to have an easy time. How much time was he going to be lying to his best friends? For the first time he considered having his memories erased as a valid alternative.

Another idea came to him, of changing things for the better, making the outcome of the war an improvement from last time. There were surely losses last time, what if they could prevent everyone from dying? Unfortunately he received the answer that he expected from Professor McGonagall. He mentioned that time was not something to play with, they might lose people either way. Harry tried to argue again but he was stopped without a possibility of continuing.

Moments later he was escorted back to the Gryffindor common room by Professor McGonagall, they had already left Rose at the Ravenclaw tower. He turned his green eyes to Hugo who had his hair totally black again, the boy had gone through something difficult he knew it, there was some kind of shadow on his face. However Hugo now looked a bit more relaxed as if his burden had lessened with Harry finding out.

Harry promised to himself not to leave them alone, he might not know them yet but they were isolated and if Hermione and Ron couldn't talk to them he could at least spare a few moments in the day to exchange some words. He didn't ask about it to Professor McGonagall, it was not a big change to the future specially if his memory was going to be erased and he also thought that his professor would have refused.

After thinking a bit about it he realized that talking to the Weasleys might not be possible though, the headmaster could _obliviate_ him as soon as the next monday.

"Hey! where were you?" asked Ron jumping from his bed as soon as he saw him, "Hermione and I were looking all around for you"

"In the library, had to check an answer from Transfiguration homework" He said looking at his red-haired friend as he had never seen him before. It was unbelievable that he had two kids wandering around the school and that he didn't know it, two kids with Hermione.

Ron raised an eyebrow but he didn't question him any more.

The weekend was pretty strange, the entire time Harry couldn't keep from thinking about the future or the Weasleys. He also paid more attention to Hermione and Ron, he was able to notice something between them. Harry knew that their latest arguments felt a little different but until that point he wasn't sure what that meant. There was attraction there but he hadn't notice it before, not this seriously, he wondered if his friends were aware of it.

He saw Rose a couple of times from far away and Harry couldn't stop picturing her as he saw her the night before even when she was waving her straight black hair again. The girl smiled at him once and he smiled weakly back, so far it had been difficult to move away from Ron and Hermione to talk to them but he was going to do it eventually, if Dumbledore didn't erased his memories before of course.

At one point Ron mentioned the Wallaces being weird again but Harry tried to defend them. He got weird looks at that of course.

The meeting with Dumbledore went way better than he expected it. The headmaster was already informed of everything by Professor McGonagall and he said that erasing Harry's memory was probably the best thing to do, Harry closed his eyes then expecting to receive the spell, he regretted not saying his goodbyes to Rose and Hugo. Although he wasn't hit by any spell, Dumbledore said that he wasn't going to do it now, apparently he wanted to solve the problem of the map first.

Professor McGonagall had returned the map to him the night before to avoid suspicions from Ron adn Hermione, the headmaster said that if he erased his memory they would return to the same problem once his eyes landed there again, he couldn't take it from him either because that could affect future events too. The wizard was going to work on a modified copy of the map which featured Rose and Hugo as Wallaces before proceeding with the whole memory erasing.

Harry sighed in relief, he was not very eager to forget things like that. He also promised to do everything he could to keep Ron's and Hermione's eyes as far from the map as possible.

The rest of the meeting was all focused on pensieve memories specifically about the first time that Dumbledore met Tom, the darkest wizard of the world was merely a boy then but there was something off about him. He didn't know why but Dumbledore was specially interested in Harry understanding all what he could about Voldemort and he was not going to question the old wizard's motives.

The next day and the ones that followed it were quite different for him. He was now part of two groups, he spent most of his time with Ron and Hermione and they soon heard the whole story about Tom's and Dumbledore's first meeting. On the other hand, he was able to talk to Rose and Hugo too and he really enjoyed their company, they were like Ron and Hermione but in a weird way talking to them felt completely different. The future Weasleys didn't say much about the future for obvious reasons and Harry tried not to push them, they were also quite interested in Harry's sessions with Dumbledore because that was a part of the story that they didn't know about.

Unfortunately most of Harry's meetings with Rose and Hugo were short, he was running out of excuses to escape to the Room of Requirement or to stay alone after a practice in the Quidditch pitch. There were not many places where they could talk freely without being spotted.

Rose and Hugo had also avoided the topic of how they ended in the past in the first place, Harry imagined that there was something important there based on the conversation with Professor McGonagall but they always changed the topic nervously.

"I played like a sack of dragon dung," said Ron one day after the worst Quidditch practice of the term. They had been left behind and Harry saw Ron way too depressed to let him go back alone to the castle, he would have to talk to Rose and Hugo later.

In all fairness Ron was not that bad of a player but he really lacked confidence. "No, you didn't," said Harry firmly. "You're the best Keeper I tried out, Ron. Your only problem is nerves."

All the way to the castle Harry couldn't raise his friend's low spirit. He completely forgot everything about Quidditch soon because behind one of the tapestries in the way to the Gryffindor tower they found Ginny and Dean kissing effusively.

The world seemed to freeze for a moment and as Ron and Ginny started yelling at each other Harry was left with a mess of emotions, he was definitely angry though. At first he thought that it was because Ginny was Ron's sister and he wanted to protect her but he soon realized that he was lying to himself. There was something there, something that he hadn't seen before or that he had been too blind to recognize.

He was jealous, as much as Harry would have liked to say that he was just protecting Ginny the fact was that he wouldn't be angry at all if the one snogging her was him and not Dean. Harry felt troubled, she was Ron's sister, he couldn't just do something about it. He didn't want to lose Ron's friendship, it was way too valuable for him.

"Harry's snogged Cho Chang!" shouted Ginny at one point, she sounded close to tears now, "And Hermione snogged Viktor Krum, it's only you who acts like it's something disgusting, Ron, and that's because you've got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old!"

That really hit Ron and after Ginny left Harry's redhead friend remained there stunned and looking hurt. Ron was serious and he didn't talk on their way up until they reached the common room.

"D'you think Hermione did snog Krum?" Ron asked abruptly once there.

Harry was far away, imagining himself in that corridor with Ginny so he was caught of guard by the question. "What?" he said confusedly. "Oh ... er ..." The honest answer was "yes," but he did not want to give it. However, Ron seemed to gather the worst from the look on Harry's face.

He didn't know what to do, his friends were not supposed to be together for a year or so but it was hard to see Ron like that. He wondered how badly could he affect the future if he just pushed them a bit together.

Thinking about the future again made him wonder about different things. His heart shrank at the thought of Ginny marrying Dean, he was surely an honorary uncle to Rose and Hugo but was Dean their real one? He found himself with no strengths to help Ron since he was way too much sad himself.

"Oh C'me on! he couldn't be that bad! He is an amazing Keeper" Hugo said the next day as they walked towards the Room of Requirement. Harry had made sure with the map that Hermione and Ron were nowhere around, the excuse of him looking for Malfoy had been useful so far. It was not that he had forgotten about Malfoy but he wasn't moving forward with that and neither Hugo or Rose wanted to help him there, he at least could use him as an excuse to wander away from his friends.

Besides, Ron was acting rather icy that day after they found Ginny and Dean together, it might be better to stay away from him for a while. He just hoped that Hermione would be all right, Ron's latest attitude was causing some struggles with many people but specially with her. Harry was starting to think that his friend had turned into a Blast-Ended Skewt.

"He is an amazing Keeper, he taught me all what I know" added Rose as they stepped inside the huge training room.

The Room of Requirement could take any form that they asked for but the first time he used it with Ron's children he made the exact version of the previous year appear, it was the only one he had on his mind. Rose mentioned that they could ask for a different thing but Hugo wanted to keep it the same, he wanted Harry to help him with some spells and Harry was glad to do it. The only difference was that the training room now had a couple of comfortable chairs in the end.

After they were inside Rose flicked her wand to her face and then to Hugo, soon their appearances were back to being Weasleys again. Rose had mastered the charms and she liked to be her normal self as much as possible, "Better" she said with a smile once that she had her bushy red mane again.

"You are a Keeper?"

Rose nodded smiling, it was still weird to picture her with the Ravenclaw colours when Harry knew who her parents were. "Not the best but at least I made it to my house's team a couple of years ago"

"I can't understand it, Dad is great. He can't be as bad as you say."

"He just needs a little of self-confidence" said Harry, "He was all weary on our way back to the castle and things only got worse when..." he paled, " never mind"

Hugo raised an eyebrow, Rose looked interested, "Hey you were telling us already, what is it? Did someone played a prank on him?"

Harry shook his head, he was pondering his options. Harry didn't know of what he was more afraid of, hearing that Ginny ended up with Dean or not knowing at all. He soon made up his mind, "We found Ginny in one corridor, she was- well kissing De-Dean" he said trying to sound casual, his eyes looking at a distant wall.

Rose who was now sitting at one couch opened her eyes wide looking worried, "And how are you?"

"Me?... well I didn't react as Ron, your...father started yelling and-"

Next to him Hugo was looking as if something had made him ill, "No, she means, well, weren't you jealous?"

Harry was taken aback by that, "Jealous? why?... I-I-" he mumbled blushing furiously.

"Hugo, we can't-"

"What? he already fancies Aunt Ginny, I'm sure of it." he said to his sister, "Wasn't it on his sixth year?"

Shock filled Harry's face, "Sixth year? what happens in sixth year?"

Rose glared at Hugo but the boy shoved her argument away, "What does it matter Rose? They are already going to delete Uncle Harry's memory either way." said the boy and then he moved his blue eyes to Harry as his sister snorted, "You and Aunt Ginny started dating in sixth year"

His eyes opened wide in astonishment and something inside him purred hoping that Hugo's words were true. However another part of him didn't quite believe it, "But- that-s not- She's with Dean..."

Hugo grinned, "Not for long, I hope, she should break with him in a few months at most," the redhead boy said walking towards a dummy, he was preparing himself to throw a spell at it as if their talk was the most normal for Harry. "Don't worry, you will marry Aunt Ginny"

"HUGO!" Rose was frowning now.

Harry was stunned. Could it be possible? could he really be married to Ginny in the future? Harry was far away now, celebrating in the inside.

"Relax Rose, it's not like he'll go and-" Hugo started but he didn't got to finish. A sound echoed from the main doors of the Room of Requirement and the three of them turned at once with terrified expressions to the entrance.

"What?!" a fourth voice asked next to the door.


	7. Ron's Girlfriend

**Yes, my current story is still the War Hero but had a few good notes on this one and decided to write this chapter for now. I will take the ON HOLD tag out of this one but I don't promise that you will see chapters here very often. My priority is still the War Hero.**

* * *

**GINNY**

When Ginny came through the portrait hole the common room had a few people in it. The last class of the day was over but there was still light outside and many students were hanging around on the school grounds trying to relax after a long day.

Dean was by her side, they had just returned from the grounds too. The shadows given by the trees near the lake were quite comfortable at these hours, it was also harder for her annoying brother to bump with them there which was an added advantage. Unfortunately she had a pending Charms' homework that she had to finish before the next day so the grounds and the lake would have to wait.

As soon as they were inside Dean spotted Seamus and they both headed up the boys' staircases to talk, of course not before giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Ginny was smiling when she saw Hermione looking at her at a nearby couch, it was weird seeing her bushy haired friend all by herself. Ginny skimmed the room and she couldn't find traces of Harry or Ron, it was not like Ginny really cared where her brother was at the moment but something didn't felt right there so she walked to her.

"Hey, where's Harry?" Ginny asked her, "Do you happen to know if there's going to be a practice today?"

"He is- at the library I believe. I don't think that he is going to miss Quidditch practice though, you have been having those every day." she answered.

Ginny raised an eyebrow, it felt weird that Harry was at the library and Hermione was at the common room looking like that. "Why are you alone?"

Hermione frowned a bit, "I can be perfectly well by myself, thank you very much. Besides if they're acting like that-"

"Like what?" Ginny asked now convinced that Hermione was upset.

The girl snorted, "Well I don't know what's up with Ron, he's been acting pretty cold and touchy all day with me, I don't remember having done anything bad to him but so be it. And Harry... well, I don't know what's going on with Harry either."

"What do you mean? Didn't you say that he was at the library?"

"No, well yes, but I mean lately." she said looking doubtful at Ginny, "It seems like he has been trying to avoid us for days now, suddenly he's been staying after practices a lot and for long periods of time. He might think that we don't notice but-"

"He's been staying after Quidditch practices? I didn't know that." Ginny said surprised, "We used to come back together from the pitch sometimes, now that you mention it he has been asking us to go ahead lately, I didn't thought that he stayed there for that long."

They talked a bit more and as always Ginny got the feeling that there was something that they weren't telling her, even so this time it was different as if not even them were telling things to each other which was beyond weird. When Hermione grabbed one of her books Ginny remembered her homework and said good-bye, she needed to go to the library to check on that Charms' essay, maybe Harry was there and she could ask him if everything was ok.

On her way down she heard voices and was surprised to discover that it was Harry but he was not alone, he was talking joyfully with the new kids, the Wallaces. Ginny found that pretty odd, as far as she knew the Wallaces barely talked to anyone and Harry seemed like a strange choice for a casual conversation. Unconsciously she tried to hide herself behind a wall as they passed by but they didn't seem to be going towards the Gryffindor tower.

Ginny had to made a decision and she ended up leaving the library for later. She felt bad following Harry but Hermione seemed distressed and Ginny had to admit that she was worried too, what could possibly had brought Harry close to the new kids? It didn't made sense. He was not someone who opened up so easily.

She walked behind them without being seen, covering herself behind solid walls and other objects there. Occasionally Harry turned around trying to see if they were alone and when he didn't saw anybody he moved his eyes back to the Wallaces. When Ginny realized where they were heading she had to contain a gasp.

How could Harry take them there? It was supposed to be a secret among them, the Room of Requirement that was. How could he trust them so soon with that?

Even so it appeared as if they were not talking about anything secret worthy, only Quidditch and last practice from what Ginny could hear.

Soon enough Harry walked around in front of the hidden door and the big doors of the Room of Requirement opened to them, they got inside. Ginny walked there and for a moment she wondered how much could she be intruding if she followed. She decided to go on with it, she was already there, besides she could just say that she only saw the doors open and that she was curious.

Ginny walked three times in front of it quickly,_ I need the room where Harry is_, _I need the room where Harry is_,_ I need the room where Harry is_.

It didn't work like that so Ginny tried a different thing, hopefully that would be the room where Harry was, it was the only one they used the previous year.

_I need the room where we trained last year_, _I need the room where we trained last year_, _I need the room where we trained last year_.

The doors appeared and Ginny pushed them open without doing any noise.

The room had been correct and Ginny found Harry there but things didn't look right, she was shocked by what she found. Harry was talking cheerfully to two students but they didn't appear to be the Wallaces anymore. The Wallaces had black hair and the boy and the girl in the room had a Weasley red hair.

"I can't understand it, Dad is great. He can't be as bad as you say." the boy said. Ginny thought that his voice was the same as Hugo Wallace who had been talking loudly just before going into the room.

It was all pretty strange.

Harry answered him, "He just needs a little of self-confidence. He was all weary on our way back to the castle and things only got worse when..." he paled, "never mind"

The red-haired boy raised an eyebrow and the girl leaned forward, they hadn't notice Ginny yet. She wasn't sure if she should go now or let them know that she was there.

"Hey you were telling us already, what is it? Did someone played a prank on him?"

Harry shook his head, surely thinking what to answer to them, he seemed uncommonly nervous. Ginny wondered if they were still talking about Quidditch and Ron... their words were confusing.

"We found Ginny in one corridor, she was- well kissing De-Dean" said Harry.

Ginny's eyes expanded and she had to make a great effort to not gasp there.

"And how are you?" asked the now redhead girl.

"Me?... well I didn't react as Ron, your...father started yelling and..."

WHAT? Ron... father? what were they talking about?

The redhead boy was looking weird as if something he ate didn't do him any good, "No, she means... well, weren't you jealous?"

Harry almost jumped on his place, "Jealous? why?... I-I-" he mumbled blushing furiously.

Ginny's jaw dropped.

"Hugo, we can't-"

"What? he already fancies Aunt Ginny, I'm sure of it." the redhead boy said to the girl, he was named Hugo too but he didn't look like Hugo Wallace anymore, "Wasn't it on his sixth year?"

Shock filled Harry's face, "Sixth year? what happens in sixth year?"

Nothing was making sense anymore, they were talking about sixth year as if it was in the past and she was pretty sure that she was no one's aunt. Where they talking about someone else? Someone who Harry fancied?

"What does it matter Rose? They are already going to delete Uncle Harry's memory." said the boy and then he moved his blue eyes to Harry as his sister snorted, "You and Aunt Ginny started dating in sixth year"

Ginny looked at Harry who seemed to be having more problems with words than usual, "But... that-s not- She's with Dean..."

"Not for long, I hope, she should break with him in a few months at most," the redhead boy said walking towards a dummy, he was preparing himself to throw a spell at it, "Don't worry, you will marry Aunt Ginny"

Everything in Ginny's head was a mess, the supposed-Wallaces were confusing and the way they kept throwing words as uncle and aunt with their names was even more. Even so by now she was pretty confident that they were talking about them but it didn't make sense either. How could they say that Harry fancied her when she knew that it was not true? How could they assure that she was going to break with Dean? And the marrying part-... no, this was way too much.

"HUGO!" Rose was frowning.

"Relax, it's not like he'll go and-" Hugo started but Ginny didn't let him finish. She couldn't take it any longer and she made herself known.

"What?!" she yelled next to the front door. Rose gasped with a jump.

For what seemed like a long moment Harry, Rose and Hugo stared at her, their eyes huge and the colour had drained out of their faces.

"G-Ginny!? wh-hat are you doing here?" asked Harry totally red.

The other two who were supposed to be Hugo and Rose Wallace - she didn't know for sure anymore - looked at each other as if something pretty bad was going on.

Ginny didn't dare to say anything, she wanted to demand an explanation but on the other side she had intruded and did thought about storming out of there.

"What did you meant with all- all th-those things?!" Ginny frowned at the three of them.

"Nothing, nothing, we didn't say anything" the redhead boy was shaking his hands and head violently.

"Who are you?" Ginny demanded.

"I'm Hugo Wallace, the new kid, this is my sister Rose" he said pulling from the girl's arm, "We were just-"

"Your hair is red"

Rose's and Hugo's eyes grew wide as the girl grabbed a lock from her red bushy mane. "Blimey!" whined Hugo kicking the floor.

Then it hit Ginny, there staring at the Wallaces something on their faces looked familiar, so familiar that it was scary. "He-Hermione?... Ron?... but what?"

The next moments were madness, everyone tried to speak at the same time and Ginny didn't got to understand half of it. Rose and Hugo kept throwing confusing words about her not telling anything to their parents which was crazy, she didn't know their parents for sure. Harry stayed behind looking stunned.

At the end they convinced her to go and talk to Professor McGonagall and all four of them left after the Wallaces put some spells on them to look like Wallaces again.

Once at McGonagall's office the explanation came but it was insane.

Ginny couldn't believe it, none of it; the war, the future, Hermione and Ron... it was all madness. Harry had known for a while apparently and he hadn't said anything, it kind of explained what Hermione said to her earlier. Ginny kept nodding at the story and as the old witch talked she was getting more convinced that it wouldn't be long before they decided to erase her memories.

"This is a difficult situation, with Mr Potter we made an exception because he was going to keep finding out about our visitors either way" said the professor referring to everything they had explained already about the map, "Mr Potter is supposedly helping us keeping Mr Weasley and Miss Granger away from their future children, I don't remember talking anything about these meetings with our visitors"

Harry lowered his sight and Ginny could understand him, how could they leave Rose and Hugo wandering sad and alone now if they knew who they were?

"I'm sorry professor, I was just trying to-"

"It is not the moment Mr Potter, the most urgent matter right now is what to do with Miss Weasley, specially now that she has pointed out to Miss Grangers' suspicions."

Ginny knew what was the answer, the only way to go would be to erase her memories but she didn't want to. She had a lot of things to ask to Rose and Hugo, specially about what she heard moments before, they hadn't told those things to the professor of course. It was soon clear for Ginny that Rose and Hugo were not supposed to talk about the future, she didn't want them in trouble, still it was unbelievable... they couldn't be saying the truth. On one of the chairs Harry was avoiding her eyes as much as he could.

She had put two and two together but she wouldn't believe anything until they confirmed her thoughts to her. And she had to talk to them again for that.

"I don't want my memories erased professor, I won't be of any trouble" tried Ginny.

"It is not about being of any trouble Miss Weasley, things could change unconsciously. Time is unpredictable. We are trying to minimize the impact here"

Then something came to Ginny's thoughts, "But Hermione is going to be after them, you know her, I could put her off. I could explain where Harry is"

Harry's eyes popped open, Rose and Hugo tried to support her of course. Even so Professor McGonagall didn't look remotely convinced, "If I have been following what you said you had already told Miss Granger that you didn't know what Mr Potter has been doing"

"I could do it now, whenever Harry talks to them I could-"

"I haven't said that I approve these meetings. I was unaware of them and I don't think that they should continue" the old witch said severely.

Harry looked troubled at Rose and Hugo, Ron's children lowered their sight looking sad. It was obvious that talking to Harry was the highlight of their days.

"But professor-" Harry started, a hard look from McGonagall stopped him.

Rose raised her head then, "What if she says to Mum that she found out what Uncle Harry was doing the previous times? Something about Quidditch or the library or-"

Close to her Ginny was hopeful since Professor McGonagall started thinking.

The old woman ended up sighing, "I don't think I can _obliviate_ a student without informing Professor Dumbledore either way, I think we'll have to wait until he returns and in the meanwhile I am hoping you can deal with Miss Granger. Everything should be fine once Professor Dumbledore finishes this new version of Mr Potter's map, by then neither one of you two would need those memories"

Ginny didn't know what to feel, it appeared as if she was going to keep her memories at least for a little while but there was no way that they were going to let her keep them on the long term.

Rose and Hugo tried to show a hopeful smile but the professor shut them down insisting that she didn't like these meetings, they could spill things about the future and she wanted them to end, what she ignored was that they had already done that.

The four of them made their way back silently until Ginny spoke, "Can we talk?"

Harry and the future kids jumped on their places, "B-But... now?"

"The Room of Requirement" she said, Harry paled.

"But Professor McGonagall said that-" Rose started.

"And who is going to tell her? I won't."

Minutes later they were all back at the Room of Requirement, Rose and Hugo were back to being Weasleys again.

"I still can't believe this..." said Ginny, "Mum got nuts, didn't she?"

Hugo smiled and nodded, "You should had seen her on Rose's birthday"

The congratulations for Rose came from Ginny and Harry who didn't know that Rose had turned of age a few days ago. After a few words were exchanged with Ginny's future nephew and niece she asked what she hadn't been able to keep out of her mind the whole time, everyone went serious again of course.

"So... me breaking up with Dean, marrying Harry-" said Ginny blushing, "is it true?"

Harry was red now and his eyes were set on Rose and Hugo.

"We shouldn't be saying things about the future" said Rose, Hugo shook his head.

"No you shouldn't but you already did, now spill it out, you know that I heard you"

Rose and Hugo looked at each other and after a while they nodded. Ginny turned to look at Harry with her eyes wide opened and they both blushed looking away.

So it was true, it was not easy to believe. Ginny had fancied Harry for as long as she could remember but she had given up on him, he wasn't interested in her or at least that was what he appeared to let know. Ginny was now with Dean and she really liked him but this shook everything around her. How could she look at Dean now if she knew that she would break up with him eventually? And what about Harry? she didn't see him with fangirl's eyes anymore, he liked him by the person he was but there was something wrong... Harry didn't like her, she thought she knew that.

"Y-You... fancy me?" Ginny asked him barely able to say the words, it seemed unreal even saying it.

Harry blushed, "I-I-... well...it's- complicated."

That pretty much said it all, "And you didn't tell me?" there was a slight tone in her voice that let it know that she was annoyed, at least a bit. "Since when do you feel like that?"

"Y-Yesterday, I think" said Harry quietly after a long pause.

"Yesterday?" she repeated at the oddness of the answer.

"He saw you kissing Death Thomas," interrupted Hugo, "He was jealous"

Rose smacked him lightly on the head, "Hey, what was that for?"

The redhead girl put a finger over her mouth, "Ssh" she whispered to quiet her brother down.

Ginny was shocked, it was all like a huge joke. All those years trying to get Harry's attention and he happened to notice her now? When she was dating Dean? It was really annoying, she didn't know what to do, she couldn't just leave Dean because of this and on the other hand what was the point in keep seeing him?

"Maybe I had felt this way for a while, I just hadn't realize it before." said Harry weakly as Ginny walked around the room nervously.

"A while?" asked Ginny incredulously.

"Dunno, maybe... since summer..." Harry started nervously and he rushed the next part, "but I wasn't sure, not until- I..."

"And when were you going to tell me?"

"Err... well..."

"Harry? you were going to tell me, right?" Ginny stopped moving around and fixed her annoyed tone in Harry who jumped on his place.

"Maybe we should go" Hugo whispered to his sister.

Rose smacked him again, this time in the shoulder, "Now what?" Hugo complained.

"We can't let them alone, the future, we can't change it," Rose said to him and then turned to Ginny and Harry, "Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny... the future shouldn't be changed and Professor McGonagall said they are going to erase your memories either way. You can't... you shouldn't..."

"Snog" said Hugo and Rose glared at him, Hugo raised his hands in surrender, "Ok, ok, I won't talk anymore"

Harry and Ginny turned bright red, "I wasn't going to snog him! I have a boyfriend!"

"But you'll marry Uncle Harry!"

Rose sent a warning look to her brother, "Hugo..."

"Sorry, It's only that it it's weird. Looking at her with Dean Thomas and that. It feels wrong."

Nothing felt right for Ginny actually, she had to think and she said so. She said good-bye to Rose and Hugo, then after a few awkward words with Harry she left towards the library. She asked him to put out an excuse for her on the practice and obviously he couldn't refuse. She spent the next couple of hours on the library trying to pull out her Charms' work but her mind was not into it.

At Professor McGonagall's office she had insisted on keeping her memories, now she didn't know if that had been the right choice. She still liked Harry, she knew that of course, after thinking a bit about it she thought that marrying him in the future was not that wrong at all. She had fantasized about it plenty of times but now she saw the whole thing differently, since last year their relationship had changed and she enjoyed every second she spent with him either on the Quidditch pitch or just talking around.

That only made things more difficult of course.

What was she going to do with Dean now? She wasn't supposed to do anything, it would be affecting the future. Wouldn't it?

At one point Hermione came by and Ginny saw her with different eyes, it was odd that she couldn't tell her that she just left her children with Harry upstairs. Would her friend be worried if she told her that McGonagall wanted to kept her children isolated?

Hermione looked at her weirdly and asked if she was all right but she nodded. Ginny told her that Harry had been there at the library before leaving for the Quidditch pitch and Hermione looked surprised which was strange too, didn't she say that Harry had come to the library? Had she made that up for her?

This was all a pack of lies, someone ought to be caught. She was making things up for Hermione and Hermione was doing the same thing to her, also Harry was telling Ron and Hermione lies about where he was and all of them were lying to Professor McGonagall about those meetings... it was a huge mess.

From that moment though Ginny started paying more attention to Ron and Hermione and she found something odd. She knew that there was obviously some attraction between them, she had seen it before, but now they appeared to be mad at each other. Ron was really touchy and she wondered if their argument from the day before had something to do with it, she hoped she didn't hurt him that much even when he deserved most of it.

Still talking and hanging around with Dean was a whole different level of oddness, she tried to keep the snogging to a minimum since she was now feeling bad about it specially when Harry was on the same room. Dean found it weird of course but she just told him that she wasn't feeling well.

The next day she found herself with Harry and Ron's children again at the Room of Requirement, she tried not to say anything about the day before since she was still convincing herself of letting everything as it was. She did try to get to know her nephew and niece a little better though. It was strange to have a Weasley in Ravenclaw but she was Hermione's daughter after all.

"You know, it is weird looking at you so excited talking about Quidditch," Ginny said to Rose, "you look so much like Hermione"

Rose smiled.

"So ready for the game?"

Both Ginny and Harry nodded.

"Still a little doubtful about Ron though, his game is not at his best" said Harry trying not to look at Ginny too much, things were a little awkward between them since the day before. Ginny didn't like that, she liked talking to Harry cheerfully as they always did.

"He'll surprise you I promise. He gets a lot better this year."

"I'll have to see that to believe it," added Ginny, "I am seriously thinking in giving Hermione a pair of pompoms to cheer him up, maybe that would help"

The four of them laughed at the mental image. "Hey! we are not getting them together so soon, remember?" said Hugo smiling.

Ginny turned to him, "Do you even know your father? It would take more than pompoms for him to do something about his feelings," she answered, "I'm serious, if it wasn't for Hermione he would take ages to get his first girlfriend, I bet she did the first move"

At that moment Rose and Hugo sobered up, "What?!"

"Is there something wrong?" asked Harry.

"Is it something I said?" added Ginny troubled.

"H-He hasn't had a girlfriend yet?"

"Errr, Not that I'm aware of" said Harry looking weirdly at Ginny who shrugged.

"B-But... I was sure it was in fifth year," said Rose looking pale, "I mean... I have been looking at them, he doesn't talk to any other girl besides Mum and-"

"Stop right there, are you saying that Ron does have a girlfriend before Hermione?"

The future Weasleys nodded at Ginny's question, "You and Uncle George had said something, Mum and Dad don't say much... I was sure it was in fifth year..."

Harry and Ginny looked worried at each other, "What's her name?"

Rose shrugged, "We only know it happened after a Quidditch game, since he got into the team in fifth year I kind of supposed..."

"Harry, this is bad."

"I am not so sure, you know that it won't work, he would eventually end up with Hermione"

"But I don't want to see my brother snogging some airhead around! specially now, they don't need to see that either..." Ginny finished looking at Ron's children.

Hugo was shaking his head quickly totally stunned and Rose appeared to be very pale. If it was bad looking at her with Dean as they said then this would be way worse, those were their parents.

"So... is either this year or the next..." Harry thought out loud.

"No, it has to be this one" said Rose.

"This one? Isn't there Quidditch next year?"

"It has to be this one, trust me" she insisted breathing fast.

Then Rose reacted in a way that made Ginny believe that they were seeing Hermione. The bushy haired girl walked away from them and started moving around the Room of Requirement mumbling all kinds of things, mostly about not wanting her father with some random girl but also about not being allowed to change the future. For Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall this would be an unimportant thing to go through but Ginny imagined that it won't be a little thing for them at all.

"... it can't be the last game... it has to be this one or the one that follows. Who did they played against? I'm sure that Aunt Ginny said something..." Rose kept moving around.

"Why it can't be the last game?" Harry stopped her.

"That's when you and Aunt Ginny first kiss, it was not then," said Hugo causing them to blush, "It has to be next game or the one after it"

Ginny wanted to know more about that kiss but she knew it wouldn't be right to ask then, specially with Hugo and Rose looking so nervous. "The first match is only a few days away...next week" she said.

"Can't we do something?" asked Hugo to his sister.

Rose seemed to be doubting it for a moment, "We can't change the future Hugo"

"But, what if we stop him from having a girlfriend but without getting Mum and Dad together?"

For a moment it appeared to Ginny as if Rose was really considering it but she refused, "It is the same, we shouldn't change time, you heard Professor McGonagall... and Grandpa"

Ginny was troubled, close to her Harry tried to say something a couple of times but without finding what. If Hermione really had strong feelings for Ron at this moment then this would be disastrous for her too. How could they not do something?

They left with that still in the air. Ginny and Harry tried to say supporting words to the future Weasleys, they said that whatever happened they would be there for them but it didn't seem like that was of much help. It was unreal that by saying just a couple of words to Ron or Hermione they could avoid this and still they weren't supposed to do it.

Later that night Ginny was uneasy next to Dean at the common room. Harry was trying not to look at her and she felt bad for him, Ron on the other side was throwing her murderous looks and all what Ginny wanted was to go there and smack him, tell him that it was not Dean who he should be worrying about but Hermione.

Could it be possible that it was this game and not the next one when all of this would happen? If it was they didn't have much time and she could imagine that maybe her words to Ron from the other day could have something to do with it. She looked at Hermione wondering if things would be different for her if she had just contained herself a little more, maybe yelling everything else to Ron but leaving the Viktor Krum part away.

She wondered about Harry too, so far he hadn't said anything more to her, as if he was accepting that Ginny had to be with Dean for now. He tried to act normally but Ginny noticed the looks he gave to her. It kind of make her sad just to look at him.

The truth was that she still fancied Harry but she liked being with Dean too. The whole future knowledge was a torture, how could they just pretend that they didn't know things? That her brother was too blind and that she just had to let him mess things up, that she had to smile and be lovely to Dean when she knew that Harry was there on the same room, that her niece and nephew where somewhere in that castle knowing that in a few days they would see their father snogging a girl that was not their mother.

And still she had to convince herself that it was all for the best. Rubbish!

That night Ginny had a real hard time trying to get some sleep, she kept trashing around thinking about all of it. Even so when she woke up the next morning she didn't had any more doubts. She had made up her mind.

* * *

**Yeah, going 2 chapters per POV with this story... hope is good so far, it is hard to change between different mindsets some times. The plot is going to thicken here pretty soon.**


	8. A Little Help From the Prince

**GINNY**

"You broke with Dean?!" Hugo practically yelled.

It was a Saturday and as soon as she was able to Ginny took them to the Room of Requirement to share the news, it seemed like only there they could talk freely without people suspecting anything. Rose and Hugo were both shocked at Ginny's announcement, Harry was close by and he looked quite stunned too.

"You're joking right?" asked Rose.

"Of course not, broke with him this morning" said Ginny.

It had been a complicated decision for her, she liked Dean but she knew that she couldn't keep doing that to Harry. She wouldn't have been able to stand looking at him so sad whenever she was with Dean. Ginny knew what that decision implied but she didn't care, she had made up her mind already.

"B-but... why did you do that?! You knew that we weren't supposed to change time! this is a disaster!" rushed Rose desperately.

"Well it was my decision"

"You did it only because of what we told you. That's wrong!... Oh Merlin! McGonagall is going to blame us, this is sooo bad, she would tell Grandpa and Grandma..." continued the bushy haired girl, she really looked a lot like her mother when she took those charms out.

Ginny turned to Harry, a light smile slowly formed in his lips, he was trying to hide it but so far he was doing a terrible job.

"I'll deal with McGonagall, if the news reaches her ears I will tell her that I was already planning on doing it. She doesn't know what you told us, right? about me and Harry?"

Hugo shook his head, "No, she doesn't but-"

"Then there's no problem" interrupted Ginny.

"But it is wrong! You can't start dating Uncle Harry, not yet, it would change time!"

"Time is already changed by you being here," said Ginny moving her brown eyes to Harry, "Besides who said I was going to date Harry?"

Harry's smile faded a bit, "Yo-you won't?" asked Hugo.

Ginny shook her head, "I can handle myself without dating anyone you know. Also, I don't think your uncle has the courage to ask a girl out like that. He wasn't even brave enough to tell me that he fancied me." she finished playfully looking away from Harry.

For a moment Harry was stunned but soon the smile came back to him, "I-I- could have"

"You can't fool me, if you didn't do it in their time you weren't going to do it now" replied Ginny grinning.

Hugo and Rose stared at them, surely wondering if they could trust Ginny's words. "Are you sure?" asked Rose, "That you are not going to date him?"

Ginny nodded as she raised her hand solemnly, "No dating for now, promise..." from the corner of her eye she was looking at Harry, "That means you can put that silly grin out from your face Potter"

Harry was startled but he nodded, he was still smiling, "Sure thing"

At that Rose narrowed her eyes thinking, "It is still a change, even if the change is small it can alter a lot of things. Meddling with time is dangerous, reckless"

"Well you should have followed that advise yourselves, how did you end up here either way? I still have the feeling that you are hiding something." Ginny said.

The future Weasley siblings jumped on their place, "No! we told you already, it was an accident!" Hugo rushed nervously, Rose agreed looking as shaken as her brother.

They were lying of course so Ginny exchanged a weird look with Harry. She wondered why hadn't they told them yet, probably it was something important but they would find out eventually. They did find out about them being Ron's and Hermione's children after all.

There was something else that was still bothering Ginny, Ron and his supposed girlfriend. Since the day before she couldn't take that out of her head every time she looked at his brother or Hermione, she couldn't stop feeling powerless. There had to be something that they could do. The game was exactly one week away and if they didn't do something then Ron would be snogging some stupid girl around and Hermione was not going to fare well with that.

"What about Ron and... that girl? Can't we stop it?" asked Ginny cautiously later, Hugo was training some spells with Harry but when he heard those words he quickly turned around.

Rose frowned and talked as if she didn't like saying what came out of her mouth, "We can't, we have already done a lot of damage to the timeline"

"What about what Hugo said?" continued Harry, "Stopping him from going out with whoever that is but not bringing him together with Hermione, not yet. Could that work?"

"Yeah, like Aunt Ginny is doing now with Uncle Harry"

"No, we already discussed that. It would impact the timeline, greatly" insisted Rose, Hugo lowered his sight in resignation.

A brief silence covered them but eventually Ginny found another argument, "What if things go wrong? What if we don't do anything and Ron doesn't break with this girl at all?"

Rose's and Hugo's eyes expanded, "He has to! He broke with her last time! He-"

"But you said that minor changes alter time, we could have changed things already. It is a possibility" suggested Ginny softly.

The bushy haired girl looked pale at that. Ginny imagined her thinking about the scenario where her father never got together with her mother, maybe that could convince her.

"They love each other! they have to be together!" yelled Hugo but his voice was directed at his sister, "Rose, please..."

"W-We have talked about this already Hugo, we can't... sorry..." Rose told him, she looked as if those words really hurt her too.

"What if Dad never leaves that girl?! think Rose! Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny will have their memories erased soon, they won't be able to help us. We don't know what would happen with us either, Professor Dumbledore could keep us away from them! What if Mum and Dad never marry!? What if-"

"Hugo stop! we can't go on struggling with every single scenario like that." tried Rose, "Besides Professor Dumbledore wouldn't do that to us... Grandpa wouldn't let him."

Hugo snorted and looked away with a frown.

Carefully Ginny looked at Harry, he wanted to argue too but he hadn't found the words yet. Surely looking at Rose position made everything harder.

"I agree with Ginny, we should do something" said Harry finally.

"Uncle Harry it's not that I don't want to but-"

"They don't have to know, we could think on something. Professor McGonagall doesn't have to find out either, she doesn't know anything about Ron's girlfriend. Do you really think that Ron not having a girlfriend before Hermione could really change the outcome of a war? It's not like we are not going to tell them about you two..."

Harry let out a sigh and after exchanging a look of understanding with Ginny he talked to Rose more slowly, "Look I don't want to change the future either, trust me, I know it is wrong. Still I think that everything could go just the same between them as on your time, even if we stop Ron from doing this"

Rose doubted but she remained strong in her opinion even after all of them left, she didn't like that position though, Ginny could see that her niece wished that things could be different too.

On their way back to the Gryffindor tower Harry promised Ginny and Hugo that he would find a solution, he was sure that Rose would change her mind. Ginny wanted to believe that, Rose appeared to be just as willful as her mother.

The Quidditch practice was awfully awkward that day, Dean had replaced Katie Bell and the whole time the boy kept throwing her weird and sad looks. Dean even asked to talk to Ginny after the game and he repeated the same words that he said that morning. The boy was confused since he thought that the break-up came out of nowhere, Dean believed that they were doing just fine until that day. The worst part was that he was right, Ginny had nothing to tell him except that she didn't felt right in the relationship anymore.

Dean thought that Ginny liked someone else and even when she tried to say that she just wanted to be alone she didn't convince him. They both left with an argument and snorting at each other. It was hard because she really had enjoyed her time with Dean, Ginny knew that she did the right thing but she didn't like hurting him.

From across the pitch Harry gave her a curious look, he had been paying attention to them throughout the whole practice.

The redhead girl didn't know what was going to happen with Harry yet, at least her promise of not dating him gave her more time to think about it. Ginny did have feelings for him, strong ones, but that wouldn't matter once they erased their memories. It was really odd, maybe it would have been better never to find out about the future.

Later that day Ginny was trying to go over her Transfiguration work at one table in the common room but it was really hard considering all what happened. Arnold the Pigmy Puff was on her shoulder but not even that could cheer her up. Dean was looking sad and Harry was somewhere in the castle hanging out with Ron.

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked her, she had noticed her mood.

"I will handle it"

Hermione sat next to her, "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really, later perhaps"

The bushy haired girl nodded, when she first found out about Ginny breaking up with Dean her surprise was evident. Ginny herself had told her that she was doing quite fine with Dean so she understood her reaction. It didn't felt right that Hermione was there feeling bad for her though, she would get over it and there were surely more difficult things approaching for Hermione. Like the prat of Ron snogging some random girl.

Ginny talked for a while with Hermione and there she explained her that Harry's latest behavior was really all about Quidditch, she said that the black haired boy was staying at the pitch to practice some complicated moves.

"Are you sure that it's just that?"

"I asked him, he invited me to join him, I'll be staying after practice too"

Hermione narrowed her eyes. Probably the bushy haired girl had been thinking that whatever was going on with Harry was something more complex than Quidditch but she didn't have any real reasons to doubt Ginny.

"Oh... for a moment I thought that he was spending more time with that suspicious potion book of his or- you know what forget it..." the girl said, something more came to her after that, "So is it only you and Harry then? after practice?"

Ginny nodded, "He said that I could be his backup Seeker, in case he can't make it to a game" unconsciously a smile peeked out of her lips.

Her friend looked thoughtful and worried at Ginny's expression, "This has nothing to do with you breaking up with Dean, right? You don't know if Harry sees this as more than a-"

"Oy! not at all! that's way over. Harry and I are just friends." said Ginny with a playful laugh.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her.

Somehow Ginny got the feeling that if she wanted Harry to ask her out all she had to do was to say so, a smile appeared on her just by thinking in what would Hermione's reaction be if she told her that. To be honest she really would like to go out with Harry -at least once- however she knew she couldn't do that, specially now that things with Dean were just over.

Also, Rose would lose her mind shouting about changing time and that sort of things.

Ron was still as touchy as when he found her with Dean in that corridor but his humour lifted a little when he heard that Ginny broke up with him, after some wrong words the girl threw one of her _Bat-Bogey_ hexes at her brother which seemed to calm him down for the time being. Ron deserved it but not just because of that, Ginny still couldn't forget the whole thing about that girlfriend that he was going to get. All the weekend Ginny paid extra attention to that and it appeared like she was down to a couple of possibilities, the only girls who seemed to notice Ron besides Hermione were Lavender Brown and a younger girl from fourth year.

A hunch told Ginny that probably Lavender Brown was the person they were looking for, she was way less shy. Whenever Parvati and Lavender crossed Ron they giggled softly away, it was incredible that Ron and Harry didn't realize that. Ginny felt sick just to think about the Gryffindor girl snogging her brother.

She knew how serious was all this '_changing time'_ situation but she really believed Harry's words. Stopping this didn't seem like something that could alter a war. Besides what if what she said to Rose was right? What if something happened this time and Ron never broke up with this girl? Plenty of things could happen differently, even Hermione could get a boyfriend now and the two of them would be separated for good.

It was a fair thought, Ginny convinced herself that not doing anything at all could change the future just as much as doing something.

_If only Rose could agree with them_... Ginny knew that her niece was torturing herself with what was going to happen. There was no need for Rose to be beating herself with this, they could still do something...

Hermione and Ron kept Harry busy so they weren't able to see Hugo and Rose until the next Quidditch practice, just as Ginny had said to Hermione she stayed behind with Harry but what the bushy haired girl didn't know was that Hugo met them there. It was then that Ginny shared her suspicions about Lavender Brown, Hugo was really worried about the upcoming game now.

The three of them didn't took long to head to the Room of Requirement again since Rose had said that she would meet them there. Hugo took a different route than Harry and Ginny of course, it would be suspicious if they were spotted with him.

Harry, who looked weird the whole way, let out his big idea as soon as they closed the doors of the training room. He took out his old potions book and showed it to them, Ginny didn't trust that book at all but she looked at the page either way.

"A _Peace of Mind_ Potion? what's that?" Hugo blurted.

"A meditation potion, for relaxing apparently... I am not following your plan" said Ginny to Harry.

The black haired boy was grinning, he moved to point something at the book but he ended up way too close to Ginny, as soon as he noticed that he moved a little away awkwardly. He still pointed at a handwritten legend by the margin of the book, "Err... well, look, there's an annotation... if you swap these two ingredients here then you can make this potion useful. It could-"

"_Make someone realize what he or she truly wants..._" read Ginny, then she moved her eyes swiftly to Harry, she was worried, "You can't be suggesting to give this to my brother and Hermione... Harry? this book is dangerous I know it."

"It has done nothing wrong so far, no accidents, no weird side effects. It is reliable" argued Harry.

It was the truth, if she had paid attention the book had only improved potions so far, otherwise she would have heard something from Hermione already. Still Ginny got a bad feeling. She didn't believe in shifty books that appeared out of nowhere, she had all the reasons in the world not to.

Harry continued, "Think about it, if Ron and Hermione know that they want to be with each other then Ron won't get another girlfriend. Still that doesn't mean that he would do something about his feelings for Hermione."

The redhead girl moved her chocolate brown eyes to the paper again, only common ingredients were there, even the ones suggested by the _ Prince _were nothing odd or dark. Moonstone powder here and some other things around. Still it appeared as if some of the key values handwritten were usually used on love potions as well, she learned that from her visit to Fred's and George's joke shop. If this potion got out of hands things could get complicated. What if they did something wrong and ended up with Ron and Hermione snogging each other? That would be clearly noticed by McGonagall.

Although Ginny had to admit that even the antidote was easy to brew, they could control this.

"But they are not supposed to be together..." said Hugo finally.

"It doesn't seem like a strong potion and as soon as the Quidditch game is over we can give the antidote to them"

"I don't know Harry... I don't like this thing about Ron's girlfriend but-"

"Rose won't like it" added Hugo.

As if they had been calling for her Rose rushed through the doors at that very moment, she was altered. Even before taking her appearance charms away she stormed them with words.

"It's really this game! there's a girl- not sure who... b-but- someone fancies Dad, and- well I-I-" hurried Rose.

"Wait just there, what happened?" asked Ginny.

Rose finally put her hair red again and continued still looking desperate, "Padma Patil, she asked me if I fancied Dad, I didn't know that I had been caught staring at him but that's not the point. When I told her that she was imagining things she- she, well she said that it was better that way, she had a friend who was going to ask Dad out! It is really happening!"

"It's Lavender Brown" said Ginny seriously.

"What?"

"Yes, I think so, I've been looking at her. Parvati, Padma's sister, is Lavender's best friend."

"Well at least we know who she is now" added Harry sadly.

Ginny moved to Rose trying to sound hopeful, "Don't worry Rose, we are still not sure if anything will happen at all. Even if it does it will not be until the match, we have a few days left"

Harry nodded, behind him Hugo was stunned.

"Ginny is right" said Harry.

"How can you be so sure? We might had changed things already, you know things and Aunt Ginny broke with Dean for Merlin's sake! Maybe even telling Padma that I was not interested in Dad will make Lavender act sooner! she might move sooner... OH Merlin! she's going to kiss my Dad! isn't she?! that girl is going to kiss my Dad!" Rose fluttered with her eyes opened wide, her breathing was very fast. She was hysterical.

The redhead girl moved uncontrollably around the room until she sat down on a couch looking quite out of herself. Ginny turned worried to look at Harry. It was troubling to see their niece like that, it seemed like so far Rose had tried to contain herself and insisted in not changing time but it was clear that this was not how she wanted things to happen. She was doubting.

"Hey, don't panic, everything's going to be all right..." tried Ginny as she walked to her and hugged her. It felt weird at first but the girl did leaned against her shoulder, Ginny was her aunt after all.

"Wait, You say that you should have told her that you liked Dad? yuck! you're sick" said Hugo gaining glares from Rose and Ginny. The boy jumped on his place.

"We need to get them together! now! I don't want to see them- ... you know" said Rose finally surprising everybody.

"Really?" Hugo said, "What about not changing the future?"

"I don't care, ok? happy now? I don't want something to happen an-d... what if-... no, we can't let that happen. They need to be together! If our presence here alters things and they don't... it would be a disaster..."

It really seemed like it was hurting her saying those words. She appeared to be strong in her opinions but apparently Ginny's words from the other day reached her. Rose was probably afraid of Ron never marrying Hermione at all.

"Calm down Rose, I think there's an alternative" Ginny said looking at Harry seriously. She didn't like it, she didn't like it at all, but it seemed like Harry's plan was their way to go.

It would be easier to just go to Ron or Hermione and try to push them together but keeping their promise of not altering time was important to Rose. It would be better if they affected things as little as possible. If the Half-blood Prince could really help them without having to tell Ron and Hermione then they couldn't turn their back on that.

* * *

**Next Chapter (Harry's POV): The Disinhibition Potion**


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